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Qauerps of {aray, f/atijral Bridge, 

Cjrottoes of tl^e S\)eT)aY)doa\) 



AND 



The Chronicle of a Leisurely Journey 

Tl^roiK^t^ \:\)e iJplapds of \fir<^iT)\a 



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ISSUED BY THE PASSENGER DEPARTIVIENT OF THE 



O. HOWARD ROYER, 

Gen- l Pass, and Ticket Agt 



SIDNEY F. TYLER, Receiver. 

Cei>(^ral Offices : 



DAVID W. FLICKWIR, 

Superintendent 



I^oapol^i^, Ua 



COPIES FREE UPON APPLIGRTION. 



THE GILES CO. I.ITHO. AND PRINT, 30 AND 32 WEST 13TH ST., IJ. y. 



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BURNSIDE BRIDGE, ANTIETAM. 



the: 



Shenandoah Valley Railroad 



OFFERS IN ADDITION TO ITS 



G{|AND SGEpY AND WONDERFUL ATTRACTIONS, 

dnsurpassed nacilities 

Qn i\)e matter of ^)rain Qquipment, 

Wnd Qxcellent service. 



On this Line carry the Latest Improved 

Pullman Palace Buffet Sleeping Cars, 

AND THE FOLLOWING NAMED 

Norfolk, 436. 

IvU-ra^r, 43^. 

Crimora, 438. 

'L.itlnia, 439. 

Otranto, 440. 

Tampico, 441. 

Constructed especially for the ./ 

Shenandoah Valley Route, 

Are now in regular Service Between 

Hew York, PifiladelpMa, Harrisbui'g, Chattanooga and Memphis, 

VIA — 

ffagerstown, Luray, Grottoes, Natural Bridge and Roanoke. 



QUICK TIME. STONE BALLAST, NO DUSTf. 



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I. 

SHENANDOAH VALLEY— THE ANTIETAM AND 
THE POTOMAC. 

Prue Criticises the Author. — Dutch Barns. — Ringgold's Manor. — Indian War-paths. — 

Battlefield of the Antietam. — Lee's Head-quarters. — The Potomac Surprises 

Us. — Shepherdstown. — Recollections of the Bucktails.— Ramsay's 

Steamboat. — Pack-horse Ford and the Slaughter of 

the Corn Exchange Regiment. 

It was a charmingly bright morning when we bade Hagerstown 
good-bye, and took our places in the train on the Shenandoah Valley 
Railway bound southward. Passengers had come in on the Western 
Maryland Railway and others on the Cumberland Valley, and now 
appeared after their breakfast at the station with smiling faces. Com- 
parisons are odious, but a better meal than one gets at the railway 
restaurant in Hagerstown is unnecessary to either health or comfort. 




HAGERSTOWN STATION. 



** That's a point you're forever thinking about," says Prue, a little 
spitefully. 

" I am, I acknowledge. It's of immense importance. Why is it I 
always prefer the Santa Fe route across the plains? Because lam 
sure of good meals. When one is traveling in the West or South, that 
consideration is doubly worth forethought. The certainty of finding 
well-cooked and abundant food was one great reason for my choosing 
this route for our present trip." 

"Well, I wouldn't be so particular." 

"Why not? It's largely your fault if I am." 

" How, pray tel^ '" 

" Because you nave educated me to so good living at home ! " 



6 

That softens the critic. Pru-e is justly proud of her tidy and 
accurate housekeeping. 

The face of the country roughens somewhat south of Hagerstown, 
and a gradual but decided change in the appearance of things is 
noticeable. The special feature of the German farming region is 
preserved everywhere, however, north of the Potomac — I mean the 
huge barns. While the houses are generally comfortable and some- 
times large, they are inconspicuous in the landscape beside the barns, 
which are magnificent — no simpler adjective will answer. They are 
not quite so big as Chicago elevators, but far more spacious than most 
churches. A few are built of wood upon a stone substructure which 
serves as a stable; but the majority are of stone with wooden sheds 
attached. The stone barns, having long slits of windows left for 
ventilation, resemble forts pierced for musketry ; while a few new barns 
made of brick, secure the needful air by leaving holes, each the size of 
one brick, arranged in fantastic patterns up and down the gable ends. 
The first stop out of Hagerstown is at St. James, a district full 
of reminiscence which Prue calls to mind at the sight of a group of 
buildings on the right a little beyond the station. This was " Ringgold's 
Manor," and Prue tells the story as we pass through the lands once 
under his sway. 

Among the earliest settlers of this part of Maryland were the 
Ringgold's, whose estates amounted to 17,000 acres in one spot here, 
and much land elsewhere. The manor-house was at Fountain Rock, 
and was a splendid mansion decorated with stucco-work and carvings 
executed in good taste. " Many of the doors of the mansion," Prue 
recounts, "were of solid mahogany, and the outbuildings, appoint- 
ments, etc., were of the handsomest character. The architect was 
the distinguished Benjamin H. Latrobe, who was also one of the 
architects of the national capitol at Washington. It was General 
Ringgold's practice to drive to Washington in his coach-and-four with 
outriders, and to bring his political associates home with him. Among 
his guests were President Monroe and Henry Clay. Mrs. Clay, you 
know," Prue adds, "was a Hagerstown girl named Lucretia Hartt. 
But this lavish hospitality and great extravagance finally worked 
Ringgold's ruin, and when he died his estate went to his creditors." 

"Yes," Baily adds, " he had a jolly-dog way of lighting cigars 
with bank-notes, I have read ; and each season would sell a farm to 
pay the expenses of the preceding congressional term." 

The old manor-house was turned into St. James' College many 
years ago. 

The streams hereabout run in deep ravines and give good water- 
power. At Grimes' station, the next stop, there is an old-time stone 
mill of huge proportions, with gambrel roof, exposed wheel and mossy 
flume, the whole surrounded by an orchard; near by stands the small, 
half-ruined stone cottage of the miller, nearly hidden in the trees, 
making a charming subject for a picture. 



Just beyond we get a small glimpse of a river, deep and powerful, 
seen down through a gorge which opens and shuts again as we leap 
its chasm. A few quaint houses (New Industry) fill the mouth of the 
gorge, but before we can look twice they are gone. Such is our first 
sight of the Potomac. 

Not far eastward of Grimes is Sharpsburg and the mouth of the 
Antietam, a district which seems to have been especially populous in 
prehistoric days, and where an extraordinary number of relics and 
traces of Indian residence have been found. At Martinsburg lived a 
great settlement of Tuscaroras, and upon the Opequon, which empties 
near there, dwelt a big band of Shawnees. At the mouth of the 
Antietam (which flows southward parallel with the railroad and two 
to four miles distant) there occurred in 1735 a memorable battle 
between the Catawbas and Delawares, for whom the Potomac was a 
border line, resulting in the defeat of the Delawares. 

More thrilling war history than this makes this station memor- 
able, however, for here, on September 17th, 1862, was fought a part 
of the great battle of the Antietam, the more central struggle of which 
took place in the plain eastward of the railway. Here at Grimes, 
however, was the extreme left of the Confederate line, where the 
trees are still scarred with the bullets, and the cornfields conceal the 
wasted shot of that fatal day. A short distance beyond is a station 
called Antietam— the point of departure for Sharpsburg and its stone 
bridge, two miles distant, which lay at the heart of the hardest fight- 
ing. For three miles the railroad runs immediately in rear of the 
position held by the main command of "Stonewall" Jackson, and 
every acre of ground was stained by the blood of brave men. In the 
large brick house seen among the trees a short distance eastward of 
the station. General Lee had his head-quarters. 

The United States soldiers'- cemetery, where more than 5,000 of 
the Federal dead are buried, is near the village, but not in sight from 
the station ; from the crest of the hill it covers, a general view of the 
whole battle-field can be obtained. 

When we come upon the Potomac again it is with startling 
suddenness. Out of the clover and corn fields the train hides itself 
in a deep cut, and thence rushes forth upon the lofty bridge which 
spans the noble river at Shepherdstown. 

Shepherdstown lies upon the southern bank and is one of the 
quaintest of villages. The cliff-like banks of the river are hung with 
verdure, few buildings skirt the water or nestle in the ravines which 
extend up to the level of the town, and on the northern side of the 
stream the famous old Chesapeake and Ohio canal still floats its cum- 
bersome boats. At the head of a ravine stands one of those old stone 
mills, most temptingly placed for sketching, and the whole presenta- 
tion of the town, with the green, still river curving grandly out of 
view beneath it, is one long to be remembered. 

Having crossed the Potomac, we are now in the northeastern 



8 

corner of West Virginia, and, in Shepherdstown, enter its oldest set- 
tlement, founded in 1734 by Thomas Shepherd, whose descendants 




National Cemeter\ at Antietam. 



Still live there and own some of the original land. The pioneers were 
Germans from Pennsylvania chiefly, and the village has more the ap- 




Gen. McClellan's Headquarters, Antietam. 



pearance of a Maryland than a Virginia town. Its settlement was 
followed closely by a large incoming of Quakers, who located them- 
selves at the foot of the North mountain. 



10 

This community was active in revolutionary days, and from it 
sprang the first of those " buck tail " mountaineers, who, recruiting 
as they went, hastened on foot to aid Washington at Boston, in 1775, 
when he first called for troops. No incident in local history, however, 
is more important than the experimentation which was carried on 
here by James Ramsay, in 1785, toward the invention of a steamboat. 
The plan of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal was then under consider- 
ation, and projects for inland navigation were stimulating inventive 
thoughts. Washington and others became especially interested in 
what Mr. Ramsay was doing, and aided his experiments. Finally 
there was produced and tried on the Potomac a steamboat, which 
unquestionably ante-dates the discoveries in this direction of Fulton 
and perhaps of Fitch. Ramsay's steamer was a fiat-boat, " propelled 
by a steam engine working a vertical pump in the middle of the 
vessel, by which the water was drawn in at the bow, and expelled 
through a horizontal trunk at the stern." The impact of this forcible 
stream against the static water of the river pushed the boat along just 
as a cuttle-fish swims. This boat was eighty feet long, and, with a 
cargo of three tons, attained a speed up the current of four miles an 
hour. She was soon disabled, however, -by the explosion of her 
boiler. Relics of her machinery are preserved in the National 
Museum, owing to the forethought of Colonel Boteler, of Shepherds- 
town, 

During the late war, Shepherdstown and its environs were the 
theatre of incessant army operations, and the town itself was shelled 
more than once by alternate guns. Its position made it an impractic- 
able point for either army to hold, while its neighborhood was desir- 
able to both. Hence, in the evenly-contested campaigns of the earlier 
years of the war, and the great marches and counter-marches which 
took place later, Shepherdstown was alternately occupied by both 
" enemies " to its peace and prosperity. 

Walking in the evening to the high bluffs near the end of the fine 
bridge and feasting our eyes on the beauty of the river-picture 
stretching away to Harper's Ferry, we can see, a mile below the town, 
ripples upon the water, near some large kilns and cement-mills which 
betokens a shallow place. 

"There," I say to Prue, "is the famous old Pack-horse ford, 
which got its name in the colonial days when all the mountain paths 
were simply ' trails,* and the pack-horse the only means of transpor- 
tation. Here would cross the northern savages when they went on 
their war expeditions against the southern tribes, and there emigrants 
and hunters, and surveyors found their easiest transit of the river." 

"I suppose," says Prue, "this must have been an important 
point in the late war, if, as you say, all the bridges were destroyed." 

" It was. Soldiers were always crossing and re-crossing, but it 
became of especial use to Lee. By it a part of his army marched to 
the field of Antietam, and after the battle the whole of his forces 



11 

recrossed on the night of September i8, to the Virginia side, at this 
ford. The main body of the Confederates continued their retreat 
inland, but a part of Jackson's army, under A. P. Hill, remained in 
partial concealment, and on that bluff which you see cleared just this 
side of the ford, batteries were planted. This was on the 19th of 
September, two days after the Antietam battle. Gen. Fitz John 
Porter, with the Federal Fifth Corps, had been ordered by McClellan 
to support the cavalry, and he determined to try to capture some of 
Hill's guns. He posted batteries on the knolls through which the 
railway passes at the northern end of the bridge, and lined the top 
of the Maryland bank with skirmishers and sharpshooters, supporting 
them by two divisions. Volunteers from the 4th Michigan, ii8th 
Pennsylvania, and i8th and 22d Massachusetts regiments plunged 
into the ford at dark, and succeeded in capturing five guns. A recon- 
noissance in force was sent across the river next morning C20th), at 
seven o'clock. The cavalry ordered to co-operate failed to do so, and 
the unsupported infantry was sharply attacked by a greatly superior 
Rebel force. It was driven back, pushed over the cliffs, killed, 
captured or forced into the river. The ford was filled with troops, 
for, just at that moment, the pet * Corn Exchange' regiment of Phila- 
delphia was crossing. Into these half-submerged, disorganized and 
crowding masses of men, were poured not only the murderous fire of 
the Rebel cannon and rifles, but volley after volley from the Federal 
guns behind them in trying to get the range of the Confederate bat- 
teries. The slaughter was terrific. The Potomac was reddened with 
blood and filled with corpses. When the routed detachment struggled 
back to shelter, a fourth of the Philadelphians, who had been in ser- 
vice only three weeks, were missing, and their comrades had suffered 
equally." 

Thus week after week, and year after year, did Sheperdstown and 
the lower part of the Shenandoah valley, hear the thunders and wit- 
ness the devastation of the war. 



II. 
THE LOWER VALLEY OF THE SHENANDOAH. 

Shenandoah Junction with B. & O. R.R. — Charlestown and "John Brown's Body.", 
— Harewood House. — Approaching the Blue Ridge.— Berryville.— Recollec- 
tions of the Early and Sheridan Campaign. — The Old Chapel.^ 
The Home of Lord Fairfax.— First Sight of the 
Shenandoah. — Front Royal and its Fights. 
—The Massanutten. 

A FEW miles above Shepherdstown the track crosses (upon a bridge) 
the main line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The station is 
called Shenandoah junction, and here passengers change cars for the 
West and for Washington. Near this point lived a trio of officers in 
the Revolutionary war whose histories were sadly similar — Horatio 
Gates, Charles Lee and Adam Stephen. All were with Washingto" 




CHARLESTOWN. 
1. COURT HOUSE. 2. A PART OF THE TOWN fROM THE STATION. 

3. harper's ferry gap from THE EXECUTION FIELD. 4. OLD CARTER HOUSE. 



13 



at Braddock's defeat, and all were there wounded ; all became general 
officers in the Continental army ; and, finally, all three were court- 
martialed for misconduct on the field, and found guilty. 

Before we have fully recalled these facts to each other, we cross 
another railway — that from Harper's Ferry to Winchester, which was 
so useful to Sheridan — and are at Charlestown, a place marked chiefly 
in my recollection as the former home of that talented and lamented 
humorist " Porte Crayon." The village lies off at the left of the track, 
behind a square mile or so of corn-fields, and is a thriving town of 
of about 2,500 people. It is built upon lands formerly owned by 
Charles Washington, a younger brother of the general, and was 
named after him. 

Lying upon the direct course between the river-gap at Harper's 
Ferry (Loudon Heights rear their noble proportions just behind the 
town) and the principal villages of the valley, Charlestown has had 
its share in all the principal episodes of the history of the region. 
Hither came Braddock's boastful army, and a well is pointed out, 
close to the railway station, which was dug by them. Hither, too, was 
brought John Brown — " Brown of Ossawatomie " — to be hanged, and 
you may see a great number of relics connected with his career. The 
court house in which he was tried and the field where he was executed, 
are both visible from the cars. 

This way, too, following the standard held aloft as " his soul went 
marching on," came the first Union troops that entered the Valley of 
Virginia, and every by-road, here was the scene of continual fight- 
ing, beginning with the "demonstration" made by Jackson immedi- 
ately after the battle of Winchester. Later, Sheridan and Early 

sparred at each other 
over this ground. Early 
having great success at 
first, but finally com- 
pelled to relinquish what 
he had gained. 

"Why it must be near 
here," says Prue, as we 
are moving off, "that 
Harewood House stood." 
" It stands only a mile 
or so toward the west, 
and not far away you 
might find the remark- 
able ruins of a stone 
church, erected during 
the reign of George II." 
* * What was * Harewood 
House'?" Bally in^ 

A DOT OF A CABIN." qUirCS. 




14 

'The home of George Washington's elder brother Samuel," he is 
informed. "It was built under the superintendence of Washington 
himself, and still stands unchanged — a valuable example of the 
architecture of its time." 

"Ah," Prue adds, "that house has seen some fine times and fine 
people ! James Madison was married in it ; and there Louis Phillipe 
and his two ducal brothers, Montpensier and Beaujelaix, were enter- 
tained as became princes." 

The face of the country waxes hilly as we proceed, and at 
Gaylord we find ourselves close to the foot of the Blue Ridge. 
It is no longer hazy blue, but green ; its features are distinctly visible, 
and here and there a dot of a cabin appears, but no large clearing 
anywhere. The great Dutch barns have disappeared, and the broad 
square faces of the Dutchmen are exchanged for the thin counten- 
ances of the Virginians. Every notch through the mountains has its 
name, first Yeskel, then Gregory, then Rock, then Snickers. 

All along on our right, the ground was somewhat higher than 
where the tracks ran, yet not high enough to impede the view of the 
regular front of the Little North mountain, here about twelve miles 
directly westward. This slight elevation is called Limestone ridge. 
It runs lengthwise of the valley, and the rainfall upon its opposite 
slope drains into the Opequon (O-pe'k-on). 

Eleven miles above Charlestown is Berryville, the county seat of 
Clarke, which has been called the "most interesting county in the 
valley to the student of history." The place owes its importance to 
the fact that it lies upon one of the great thoroughfares over the Blue 
Ridge — the turnpike through Snickers' gap — and to the fertile country 
by which it is surrounded. Prue asks why, long ago, it was called 
" Battletown," and I cannot tell her; but there has been abundant 
reason since for such a name. Banks took possession of the place as 
early as- '6i, following the macadamized road from Harper's Ferry to 
Winchester. In 1864, when Early was retreating from his Maryland 
campaign, loaded with plunder, here occurred a sharp fight ; subse- 
quently Sheridan made this point a centre of extensive operations ; 
and on September 3d, 1864, by a mutual surpise, a battle was 
precipitated in the afternoon between a large Confederate force and 
the Federal Eighth Corps, which ceased only when it was too dark to 
see. By the way of this turnpike, too, were sent forward the great 
armies that pressed back Early's forces after the battles around 
Winchester. 

A little way past Berryville, Prue calls us hastily to look down at 
the right upon an old cemetery crowded with headstones, and shaded 
by a growth of aged trees beneath which the tangled roses and un- 
trimmed borders of redolent box have flourished unchecked. A 
stream, mourned over by weeping willows, creeps stealthily by ; and 
in the midst of the graves stands an antique chapel, approached by 
several roads. 



15 

"Is it not peaceful and comforting ? " cries Prue. " I think one 
might lay a friend in such a place as that with ' sweet surcease of 
sorrow ' far different from the bleak replusiveness of most rural 
cemeteries." 

"Yes, and that, perhaps, is the feeling with which at a certain 
time every year the old families whose country seats have been in this 
region for many generations, assemble for a day of memorial services 
over their dead who are buried under those stately trees." 

"I am told," Baily adds, "that its first pastor was Bishop Meade, 
the same who wrote a book upon the old churches and old families of 
Virginia, which contains the full history of this chapel." 

The locality into which we are now swiftly and smoothly pene- 
trating is one replete with landmarks and traditions of Colonial history. 




VIRGINIA UPLANDS. 



A mile or two beyond Boyce, for instance, we observe, off at the right, 
a stone house of old-fashioned style, which has been known for a 
century as " Saratoga," because built by Hessian prisoners captured 
with Burgoyne. 

Then comes White Post. 

' ' Strange name for a station," Prue remarks. ' ' How did it arise ?" 
" This," I say, " was the centre of that great estate, of more than 
five millions of acres, granted by the English crown to Lord Fairfax, 
Baron of Cameron, the boundaries of which included all the region 
between the Rappahannock and the Potomac, marked on the west by 
a line drawn from the head springs of the one to that of the other river. 
It was the task of the youthful George Washington to s^urvey that part 
of this vast estate beyond the Blue Ridge, and it was in pursuance of 



16 

this duty that he made the western trips and tramped over the country 
in the a'dventurous way we have read about. Near the intersec- 
tion of the roads from the two main gaps through this part of the 
mountains, Lord Fairfax built himself a country house of no great 
size or elegance ; and at the junction of the roads he set up a white 
oak finger-post as a guide. The original post still remains, carefully 
encased for preservation." 

" Is the house still standing?" 

" No ; but there is a new one on its site. Fairfax called it ' Green- 
way Court,' and with the open, lavish hospitality characteristic of rich 
frontiersmen, he made it the scene of revelry and rough, hilarious 
sports, such as were enjoyed by the carousing, fox-hunting generation 
in which he lived. It was his intention to have erected a larger and 
more pretentious mansion, but this project was never carried out, and 
the proprietor lived the remainder of his days in the house first erected. 
Here he dwelt when his former protege, Washington, had successfully 
prosecuted the war for independence to the surrender of Cornwallis at 
Yorktown, and the deliverance of the colonies had been achieved. 
Strongly attached to the English cause, when told of the surrender he 
turned to his faithful servant and remarked: 'Take me to bed, Joe; 
it is time for me to die.' Old and feeble at the time, he never rallied, 
dying December 9, 1781." 

Here Prue points out a noble height coming into view directly 
ahead, which seems to lie right in the centre of the valley. 

" That," she is informed, " is Massanutten mountain, or The Mas- 
sinetto, as it is given in early writings." 

"Yes," Baily interposes, "and here, at last, is the Shenandoah, 
the beautiful stream that with keen poetic instinct the Children of the 
Forest named The daughter of — " 

"That will do, Baily ; you don't know anything about it." 

"Well, if it don't mean that, what does the name signify?" 

"Nobody seems to know, at any rate, jjf« don't. Why, its very 
spelling is so obscure that probably we have lost the original word 
entirely. In the earliest accounts it was the ' Gerando,' then the ' Sher- 
ando,' or 'Sherandoah,' and the present spelling is quite recent." 

"Anyhow, here's the river!" 

"Yes, and isn't it a beautiful one!" Prue exclaims. "I have heard 
a traveler say that ' it deserves the epithet arrowy as well as the Rhone.' 
Surely, it should have a poetical name." 

"And has a musical one, which is much more to the purpose," I 
insist. "See how graceful are its curves, how silken and green its 
quiet current, how deeply embowered in foliage and rocky walls, and 
what pretty little gateways are broken down through them to let the 
hill-brooks pour their contributions into its steady flood!" 

A few moments later we cross on an iron bridge at Riverton, the 
point of confluence of its two forks — the "North" and the "South." 
The North Fork comes down from the other side, and its basin is distin- 



17 

guished as the Shenandoah valley proper, while our route lies between 
the Massanutten and the Blue Ridge, that is, up the South Fork. This 
is generally spoken of simply as South River, and its basin is called the 
Page Valley. At Riverton the Manassas branch of the Virginia Mid- 
land Railway (which figured so largely in army movements during the 
civil war) crosses en route from Manassas to Strasburg, and there are 
evidences of an important manufacture of lime. The village itself is 
out of sight, as also, is Front Royal, whose station is called two miles 
ahead. I told Baily to stop and go over there, while Prue and I went 
on to Luray ; and his report was so glowing I regretted we had not 
been with him. 

To the site of Front Royal, according to Baily, came white settlers 
as early as 1734, and placed their houses in a sheltered nook among 
the hills beside the Shenandoah, at a point where the Indian trails 
from Manassas and Chester's gaps joined into one near the mouth of a 
little stream, since called Happy Creek. This fact produced a Y-shaped 
settlement, which, with the increasing growth of the village, has not 
been changed, the three main streets still following the old paths 
marked out by the moccasined feet of pre-historic pedestrians. 
Gradually the fame of the fertility and beauty of the Valley of Virginia 
attracted settlers from the coast and from abroad, and the Indians 
were replaced by hardy white men. This new settlement, then called 
Lehewtown, became a centre of a large district and attracted so many 
rough characters that it came to be known as " Helltown," with good 
reason. By the close of the Revolution, however, order and respect- 
ability prevailed, and in 1788 a town was incorporated, under the 
name of Front Royal, the origin of which term is a nut for historians 
to crack. From that time on it has been prosperous, having acquired 
wealth and fame in manufactures as well as through its rich environ- 
ment of farms and vineyards. There were made the celebrated 
Virginia wagons of a past day, which were the best of their kind in 
the whole country, and were taken by emigrants to every new state 
and territory as forerunners of the prairie schooner. Hand-made and 
durable as the "deacon's one-hoss shay," their cost was so great that 
the machine-made wagons have surpassed them as thoroughly as the 
cradle has overcome the sickle ; but Front Royal still shapes and 
sells great quantities of spokes, hubs and other wagon material of the 
best quality. 

Front Royal is now a neat and pretty village, of perhaps a thousand 
people, which is growing rapidly. As the county seat of Warren it 
becomes the residence of the professional men of the district, and is 
marked by a society of unusual intelligence. 

Here occurred some exceedingly interesting incidents during the 
war, in one of which a mere handful of Confederate cavalry under a 
boyish commander dashed into the village, captured the provost guard, 
and made off with it successfully, though two whole regiments of be- 
wildered Federals were at hand to protect the place. Ashby (whose 



18 

birthplace and home was up in the Blue Ridge, not far away) was 
hovering about here much of the time, while Jackson enacted his series 
of victories in this district ; and on May 22, 1864, here took place one 
of the most disgraceful routs Union soldiers ever were ashamed of, 
four companies of Flournoy's Virginians attacking a thousand or so of 
Bank's army, entrenched on Guard hill, with such impetuosity as to 
scare them in utter confusion from their works, with great loss of life, 
stores and artillery. These disasters were requited later in the same 
year, however, when Sheridan, driving back Early, fought so stub- 
bornly along this very limestone ridge which the railway track follows ; 
and Front Royal echoed again and again, during that and the subse- 
quent year, to the roar of cannon, the sharper crackle of small arms 
and the hoofs of charging cavalry. 

From Front Royal station southward to Luray the line passes 
through a region of wooded hills and deep ravines. The river is 
often close beneath the track, and its course through these rocky 
highlands presents many views that excite our admiration. We are 
fairly among the foot-hills of the Blue Ridge here, though its central 
peaks are far enough away to show to good advantage. In this rough 
district, where more wooded than cleared land is seen, a fine grade of 
" neutral hematite" iron ore occurs, the principal point of shipment 
for which is at Rileyville. A few moments after leaving that station 
we are at Luray, and have alighted to take a pleasant night's rest, 
and seethe wonderful caverns. 



III. 
LURAY AND ITS CAVERNS. 

Old Caves. — Discovery of the New Caverns. — Startling Effect of Electric Light in the 

Cave. — Theory of Excavation. — A Rapid Survey. — The Bridal Chamber and 

its " Idiots." — Varieties of Stalactite. — Richness of Color, — Musical 

Resonance. — The Skeleton. — A Fair World. — Value of a Good 

Hotel. — Luray as a Summer Residence. 

Page valley is here several miles wide, and the surface is diversi- 
fied by an endless series of knolls, ridges, and deeply imbedded streams. 
" The rocks throughout the whole of this region have been much dis- 
placed, having been flexed into great folds, the direction of which 
coincides with that of the Appalachian mountain-chain. In fact these 
folds are a remnant of the results of that series of movements in which 
the whole system primarily originated." Hidden in the woods near 
the top of one of these hills, about a mile east of Luray, an old cave has 
always been known to exist. Connected with it are traditions which 
reach back to the Ruffners, the earliest settlers of the valley, and it 
has taken their name. 

In 1878, Mr. B. P. Stebbins, of Luray, conceived the project of a 
more complete exploration of it, with a view of making it an object of 
iaterest to tourists, and he invited the co-ooeratio^ of the brothers 



19 

Andrew and William E. Campbell. These gentlemen declined to go 
into the old cave, but were ready to engage in a search for a new one, 
and went ranging over the hills, but for four weeks succeeded only 
in exciting the astonishment and ridicule of the neighborhood, when, 
returning one August day from a long tramp, the men approached 
home over the hill where Ruffner's cave was. In the cleared land on 
the northern slope, a couple of hundred yards or so from the mouth 
of the old cave, was a sink-hole choked with weeds, bushes, and an 
accumulation of sticks and loose stones, through which they fancied 
they felt cool currents of air sifting. 

Laboriously tumbling out the bowlders, Mr. Andrew Campbell 
was finally able to descend by the aid of a rope into a black abyss, 
which was not bottomless, however, for he soon let go of the rope and 
left his companions on the surface to their conjectures. Becoming 
uneasy at his long absence, his brother also descended, and together 
the men walked in a lofty passage for several rods, where their prog- 
ress was stopped by water. Returning, they told Mr. Stebbins what 
they had seen, and all agreed upon a policy of silence until the prop- 
erty could be bought. Then they went home and dreamed of 
" millions in it." Such was the discovery of the Luray cave. 

Dreams are but a "baseless fabric." The property was bought 
of a bankrupted owner, at sheriff's sale, but upon an intimation of its 
underground value, one of the relatives of the original owner sued 
for recovery upon an irregularity in the sale, and after two years of 
tedious litigation, he won his suit. Previously a company of Northern 
men, of whom Mr. R. R. Corson, of Philadelphia, as president, had 
formed a joint-stock company to purchase the property, and it passed 
into their hands in the spring of 1881. But during the two years the 
original cost had swelled, while the early visions had dwindled, until 
they met at $40,000. This is the history of the "wonder," and now 
we are ready to enter it. 

But it is over a mile from the hotel to the cave, and the day is 
warm. Enquiry develops the information that if we are willing to 
wait until some train arrives we may find hacks at the station which 
will take us the round trip for thirty-five cents ; but if we wish to go 
at our own convenience the clerk at the hotel will summon a hack 
when we please, and we must pay fifty cents fare. 

I had been intending to buy Baily a certain cigarette-holder which 
had taken his fancy, as a present, but I reflected that, if instead I 
took the money it would cost, and applied it to paying the extra 
charge of the latter alternative we would enjoy the trip better, so 
I told Mr. Mullin that I would ask him to telephone for a hack 
at once. This was after breakfast on the morning succeeding our 
arrival. 

"What shall I wear?" asks Prue; " I suppose it's a horrible muddy 
and soiling place. I shall envelop myself in my waterproof, of 
course, but how about a bonnet ?" 



20 




HALL OF THE GIANTS. 



"No change whatever is needful," we were told. "You will find 
an even temperature of about 56"^ Fahrenheit throughout the cave, 
and all the year round. There is plenty of room to walk about every- 
where without squeezing against the walls or striking your head, and 
board or cement walks and stairways are provided throughout all the 
area open to visitors. It is advisable, nevertheless, for ladies to wear 
rubbers, since there is enough dampness underfoot in some places to 
penetrate thin-soled boots." 



21 

So Prue resumed her traveling dress — that short-skirted, close- 
fitting, wine-colored flannel I like so much — donned a snug turban 
and off we went. I told Daily he'd better leave his crutch-headed 
cane at home, but he his a bit of a dandy and wanted to " show it to 
the natives," so I had the laugh on him when it was taken from him 
by the keepers of the cavern, who wisely allow no dangerous im- 
plements of that kind among the fragile treasures of their under- 
ground museum. 

Our road led us through the long main street of the village, but 
we attracted little or no attention, for nearly 20,000 tourists a yeaf 
ride up and down this stony street. Half a mile beyond the town, on 
the slope of a low hill, stands a house with porticoes all aroiJnd it and 
a public air. Here we registered our names, paid our admission fee, 
and were assigned to the charge of a guide. His first act was to hand 
to me a sort of scoop-shovel reflector, or sconce, in which were placed 
three lighted candles, and take another himself. This made us look 
at one another, as much as to say — "This thing is a humbug !" for 
we had been told of far better means of illumination than that ; but 
meanwhile the guide had opened an inner door and invited us to follow 
him down a staircase of masonry, and, before we supposed our day's 
adventures had begun, we found ourselves in the large ante-chamber 
of the caverns. This unpremeditaded, unintentional entrance is as 
though you had been dropped into the midst of it, or had waked from 
a sleep there, and is most effectual in putting the stranger as en 
rapport with the spirit of the place. 

The darkness was only faintly illuminated by our few can'dles, 
and I was about to remonstrate, when the click and flash or an electric 
arc, flooded the whole place with light. Our few candles were in- 
tended merely for peering into dark corners and helping our footsteps 
— the general illumination is accomplished by dozens of electric lamps 
hung in all parts of the wide-winding vaults and passages. As soon 
as I perceived this I gave my sconce to Baily, for it was a nuisance 
to carry it. 

This first chamber is about as big as a barn {not a Cumberland 
valley barn, Prue wisely remarks), and from it we proceed upon a 
causeway of cement for a short distance past the Vegetable Garden, 
the Bear Scratches, the Theatre, the Gallery ; over Muddy Lake on a 
planking-bridge, which is itself spanned by a stone arch ; through the 
Fish Market and across the Elfin Ramble — a plateau in which the roof 
is generally within reach of the hand ; and so come to Pluto's Chasm. 
Gazing down over the edge of this underground ravine, Baily 
exclaimed: " What mighty convulsions must they have been which 
rent these walls asunder ! " ' ' . 

"There, Baily, is where you show your — well, your insufficiency 
of knowletige ! This chasm owes its configuration to the same slow 
and subtle agencies that produce a canon above ground in this lime- 
stone valley." 



"Why do you say 'limestone' valley?" Prue asks. 

" Because great caves can only occur in a limestone region, since 
they result from the chemical fact that carbonates of lime and. mag- 
nesia are soluble in water containing carbonic acid. This acid 
abounds in atmospheric air, and is one of the products of the decom- 
position of animal and vegetable waters, so that rain-water which has 
percolated through the soil has usually been enrich'^d with it from both 
sources. Let this chemically charged water find its way into some 
crevice, and it only requires time and abundance of water to dissolve 
anji hollow out Pluto's and all the other chasms, halls, galleries and 
avenues ; and when once this work has well begun, other natural 
agencies contribute their aid to the enlargement of the area and the 
adornment of its interior. 

From the chasm, where there is a Bridge of Sighs, a Balcony, a 
Spectre, and various other names and habitations, we re-cross the 
Elfin Ramble, pass successively Titania's Veil, Diana's Bath — the 
lady was not fastidious — and come to a very satisfactory Saracen 
Tent. 

Then we ascend stairways past the Empress Column — easily 
empress of all, I think — and proceed under the Fallen Column to the 
spacious nave of the Cathedral. We pause to note its lofty groined 
roof and Gothic pillars — surely, in some like scene to this, the first 
architect of that style met his inspiration ! — its large, Michael- 
Angelesque Angel's Wing, and its Organ. Then we sit down and 
turn to the prostrate stalactite. It is as big as a steamboat boiler, and 
bears an enormous pagoda of stalagmitic rock which has grown there 
since it fell. It thus forms a good text for a conversation, as to the 
age and geology of the cave, the materials for which we found by 
reading an excellent pamphlet on the subject published by the 
Smithsonian, and which may be procured at Luray. The gist of it is, 
that the cave is probably considerably later in its origin than the close 
of the carboniferous period, and not more ancient than the Mammoth 
or Wyandotte caves. The indications are, that in past ages the work 
went on with great rapidity, but that latterly change has been very 
slow, and at present has almost ceased. 

Leaving the Cathedral, a narrow, jagged passage, we get an out- 
look down into a sort of devil's pantheon, full of grotesque shapes 
and colossal caricatures of things, animate and inanimate, casting odd 
and suggestive shadows in whose gloom fancy may work marvels of 
unworldly effect, and then are led by a stairway to a well-curtained 
room called the Bridal Chamber. 

"Was anyone ever really married here?" asked Prue, incredu- 
lously. 

"Three couples, so far, Madame," the guide informs her. 

" Well ! " exclaims the neat little lady. " I had no idea there were 
such idiots ! Now if you had said three funerals, I could have found 
some appropriateness in it." 







! 



Li! I mm 






imiirv^'^-^^^^iii 



\\\ 'A !"i*\ini'''in I'll 



III ' 



!'/()-.; 



YSMiilSI 



III iii 1/ '■■ I'l 



i ■ ' I I.: 1/ ', ■ ■■' ■-' .-y';;;-^^ll'!i!Ml 

'fif iii 



' //■v..,',';', 



in , , I I ■' / ;■ i '////i;',! |] 'i ■'■■■; 







25 




HOTEL LAURANCE, LURAY. 



The back door of the Bridal Chamber admits to Giant's Hall, just 
beyond which is the Ballroom — both large and lofty apartments, con- 
stituting a separate portion of the cave, parallel with the length of 
Pluto's Chasm. In the Ballroom we have worked back opposite the 
entrance, having followed a course roughly outlined by the letter U. 

I have thus run hastily over the greater part of the ground open 
to the public, in order to give an idea of its extent and nomenclature. 
To describe each figure and room separately is impossible. The best 
I can do is to try to give some general notion of the character of the 
ornamental formations of crystalline rock which render this cave 
without a peer in the world, perhaps, for the startling beauty and 
astonishing variety of its interior. 

Though the simple stalactite will be circular and gradually 
decreasing in size, conically from its attachment to its acuminate 
point, yet innumerable variations may occur, as the dripping or 
streaming water that feeds it is diverted from its direct and moderate 
flowing. 

Chief of all the varieties, and the one that in lavish profusion is to 
be seen everywhere in these caverns, is that which, by growing on 
the edges only, produces not a round, icicle form, but a wide and thin 
laminated or sheet form which is better described by its semblance to 



26 

heavy cloth hanging in pointed folds and wrinkles, as a table-cover 
arranges itself about a corner. Where ledges and table-like surfaces 
— of which there are many instances in the cave — are most abundant, 
there the "drapery" is sure to form. In the Market it crowds the 
terraced walls in short, thick, whitish fringes, like so many fishes 
hung up by the gills. The Saracen Tent is formed by these great, 
fiat, sharply tipped and gently curving plates, rich brown in color, 
depending from a square canopy so that they reach the floor, save on 
one side, where you may enter as through conveniently parted canvas. 
The Bridal Chamber is curtained from curious gaze by their massive 
and carelessly graceful folds ; the walls of Pluto's Chasm are hung 
with them as in a mighty wardrobe ; Diana's Bath is concealed under 
their protecting shelter ; Titania's Veil is only a more delicate texture 
of the same ; Cinderella Leaving the Ball becomes lost in their folds 
as she glides, lace-white, to her disrobing ; and a Sleeping Beauty has 
wrapped these abundant blankets about her motionless form ; while 
the Ballroom carries you back to the days of the Round Table, for the 
spacious walls are hung as with tapestries. 

Do not disbelieve me when I speak of wealth of color. The range 
is small, to be sure, but the variation of tint shade is infinite and 
never out of tune. Where the growth is steady and rapid, the rock is 
crystal white as at the various Frozen Cascades, the Geyser and many 
instances of isolated stalactites. But when the steady growth ceases, 
the carbonic moisture of the air eats away the glistening particles of 
lime, and leaves behind a discolored residuum of clay-dust and iron 
oxides. Thus it happens that, from the niveous purity or pearly sur- 
face of the new work there runs a gentle gradation through every 
stage of yellowish and whitish brown to the dun of the long aban- 
doned and dirty stalagmite, the leaden gray of the native limestone, 
or the inky shadow that lurks behind. It is thus that the draped and 
folded tapestries in the Ballroom are variegated and resplendent in a 
thousand hues. Moreover, various tints are often combined in the 
same object, particularly in the way of stripes more or less horizontal, 
due to the varying amount of iron, silica, or other foreign matter 
which the lime-water contained from time to time. 

The best example of this, and, indeed, of the " drapery formation " 
generally, is to be found in the Wet Blanket. A large number of the 
pillars are probably hollow, and are formed by the crowding together 
of many drapery-stalactites, which finally have coalesced, leaving the 
pillar deeply fluted, or seamed up and down, along their connected 
edges. When you find one of these massive, ribbed and rugged pillars 
vanishing above in a host of curved stalactites, their thin and wavy 
selvages guiding the eye to tips which seem to sway and quiver over- 
head, it is hard not to believe it is an aged willow turned to stone. 
Indeed, the whole scene, in many parts, is strongly suggestive of a 
forest with tangled undergrowths, thrifty saplings, fallen logs, and 
crowding ranks of sturdy trees. 



27 

In more than the general effect, indeed, the ornamental incrusta- 
tions of this cave mimic the vegetable growths outside. Many of the 
stalactites are embroidered with small excrescences and complicated 
clusters of protruding and twisted points and flakes, much like leaves, 
buds, and twigs. To these have been given the scientific name of 
helictites, and the grottoes of Stebbins Avenue exhibit them to the best 
advantage. 

Then there are the botryoids — round and oblong tubers covered 
with twigs and tubercles, such as that cauliflower-like group which 




A MOUNTAIN CASCADE. 



gives the name to the Vegetable Garden ; these grow where there is 
a continual spattering going on. A process of decomposition, dissolv- 
ing out a part and leaving a spongy frame-work behind, furnishes to 
many other districts quantities of plant-semblances, that you may 
name and name in endless distinction. Then, in the many little hol- 
low basins or "baths," and in the bottom of the gorges where still 
water lies, so crystal clear you cannot find its surface nor estimate its 
depth-^where the blue electric flame opens a wonderful new cave be- 
neath your feet in the unrecognized reflection of the fretted roof, and 



28 

where no ice is needed to cool nor cordial competent to benefit the 
taste of the beverage — there the hard gray rock blossoms forth into 
multitudes of exquisite flowers of crystallization, with petals rosy, 
fawn-colored and white, that apparently a breath would wilt. 

But I must cease this attempt at even a suggestion of the possible 
variety of size and shape, mimicry and quaint device to be met with 
in this cavern. 

That rigid stone should lend itself to so many delicate, graceful, 
airy shapes and attitudes, rivaling the flexible flower of the organic 
world, fills the mind with astonishment and bewilders the eye. And 
when you have struck the thin and pendent curtains, or the "pipes " of 
the Organ in the Cathedral, and have found that each has a rich, deep, 
musical resonance of varying pitch, then your admiration is complete. 




STATION AND RESTAURANT AT LURAY. 



The impression of it all made upon such visitors as are affected at all 
beyond ohs ! and ahs ! if written down, would form very curious read- 
ing ; but little has been recorded, chiefly because it is one of the most 
diflfiicult things in the wide world to do adequately. 

The cave has not yet much human interest ; but we must not for- 
get to follow down a long stairway into a deep and narrow gulch, 
where the dampness and gloom is little relieved by anything to please 
the eye. At the foot of the staircase the guide drops his lantern close 
to a trench-like depression, through which a filmy brooklet trickles 
noiselessly. No need of interrogation — there is no mistaking that 
slender, slightly curved, brown object, lying there half out, half em- 
bedded in the rock, with its rounded and bi-lobed head, nor its grooved 
and broken companions. They are not fallen, small stalactites ; they 
are human bones. Fit for the mausoleum of emporers, what a vast 
vault to become the sarcophagus of one poor frame / 



39 



Out into the warm, sweet air again, all the world looks fairer for 
one's temporary occultation. Surely the Troglodytes had a hard lot. 

Even the Naiads under 
the water, and the Dryads, 
though indissoluble from 
growing trees, were bet- 
ter off ! 

And what a fair world 
it is ! How prodigal of 
beauty are soil and sun ! 
How grandly has the 
architect and landscape 
gardener of the globe 
adorned this valley ! How 
precious the scene to him 
whose beloved home is 
here ; and how novel and 
entertaining its features. 
to the stranger ! 

Rested and well-fed we 
sit upon the piazza of the 
inn and thank the good 
fortune which brought us 
hither. No one can ap- 
preciate a good hotel bet- 
ter than he whose ill-luck 
it was to travel in the 
South a dozen years ago, 
where that article was 
unknown. The people 




AN "interior" in the inn at luray. 



30 

who owned and prepared the cave, and the railwaymen who meant to 
profit by it, knew that the country taverns would never do. They 
built on this hill-top, in this midst of a populous valley which was not 
only pleasant to look at, and charming to ride and walk over, but 
which could supply all the fresh vegetables and fruit and meat so 
desirable upon a rural table ; a hotel constructed after that most pic- 
turesque design — the Early English — and including all the modern 
appliances for health and comfort. Beyond the ornamental grounds, 
we see puffs of steam coming from a half-hidden building. There is 
where the water is pumped up to the hotel, where the gas is made 
which illuminates all its rooms, and where the dynamo is placed 
which supplies the electric lights of the cave through a circuit over 
seven miles in length. 

The LURAY INN, then, is not only a charming stopping-place for the 
casual transient tourist who stops off only half a day to see the caves, 
but offers an attractive residence to visitors who may choose to stay a 
week or a month or a whole summer. This hotel has recently been 
enlarged by the addition of a handsome annex containing one hun- 
dred rooms of large size and magnificently furnished, at an expense 
of nearly a hundred thousand dollars. 

The Luray Inn is heated by steam and open fires. Elevation, 
i,ooo ft.; 1,500 ft. of porches; dining-room service unique and elegant. 
A cuisine of particular excellence; music; delightful drives. Season, 
from April ist to Nov. ist. Rates, I3.00 and $3.50 per day. Special 
rates by the week. 

No part of the valley is more interesting. If historically disposed, 
the visitor may reconstruct the odd life which went on here a century 
and a half ago, whose quaint customs are not yet forgotten. 

"Who were the settlers here at first," Prue inquires, "and what 
does this queer name Luray mean?" 

"One question answers the other. This part of the valley was 
settled first by Huguenots who had escaped from France through the 
Palatinate ; and they named their district Lorraine, which has been 
corrupted into Luray, by changes really slight when you think of the 
elliptical tendency of all pronunciation in Virginia." 

If recent history is more attractive, then here is the place to 
gather thrilling reminiscences of the long campaigns of the civil war 
from Jackson in '61 to Sheridan's victory in '65, which belong to every 
hill-top and each valley road. If one enjoys sport, here are the 
forests and stream of the Blue Ridge or Massanutten. If he is an 
artist — surely he could find no richer field. Luray itself is a reLc of 
the old-time Virginia rural villages — quaint, irregular, vine-grown 
and full of romantic suggestion. Along the river, pictures of the 
most enchanting character may be found ; with th.e water in the 
foreground, a rocky wall right or left, a middle distance of farm lands 
and well-rounded copses, the vista will always lead straight to the 
clustered peaks that stand proud and shapely on the horizon. 



31 

IV. 

UP THE SOUTH FORK. 

The Hawksbill.— Shields' Pursuit of Jackson.— "Stonewall's" Personal Fighting.— Elk. 

ton.— The Battle of Port Republic. — Iron Mining and Manufacture. —Other 

Minerals.— The Grottoes of the Shenandoah. — The Way to the White 

Sulphur Springs. — Jubal Early's Defeat at Waynesboro. 

From Luray southward the road runs upon a ridge separating the 
Shenandoah from the Hawksbill, which was crossed just at town, and 
whose broad valley is filled with prosperous farms. It was a' favorite 
resort for cavalrymen during the late war, since they not only found 
it a capital region to operate in, but plentifully stored with forage. 
Through the many passes in this part of the Blue Ridge would descend 
the troopers of Mosby, and to the same fastnesses fled the horsemen 
of Early's hard-pressed squadron, only to reappear again the mo- 
ment the coast was clear. 

Up this South Fork, 1862, Shields hastened forward after Jack- 
son, who had escaped between him and Fremont at Strasburg, while 
the latter commander chased him up the North Fork. The plan was 
to unite at the southern end of the Massanutten, and there defeat the 
weary and weakened Rebels by means of their combined forces — a 
plan which promised success, but failed to keep its promise. 

Shields' first care was the bridges, of which three spanned the 
Shenandoah betwen Luray and Port Republic. One of these was just 
here opposite Marksville station (a place now noteworthy for the 
superior ochre which is mined in this vicinity), but he was too late, 
for Jackson had burned it. Thus compelled to take muddy roads 
(this was the first week of June), he struggled slowly along the west- 
ern bank of the river until his advance had arrived at Conrad's Store, 
where was the next bridge, and which is only a mile or two from our 
station, Elkton, on Elk Run. (It was by the way of Swift Run gap 
and down this little side valley, that Spottswood and his " Knights of 
the Golden Horseshoe" first looked upon the Shenandoah, in 1716, 
whence sprang the Scotch-Irish ancestors of the land-holders of this 
region.) Carroll, one of Shields' subordinates, pushing north to secure 
the bridge at Conrad's, with Tyler's brigade, a few miles behind, sur- 
prised the whole of Jackson's trains and camp, left under the guard 
of only a few cavalrymen with three guns. Dashing in, Carroll 
nearly stampeded the train and escort, but it happened that the com- 
mander and his staff were there, and taking part himself in the very 
front of the skirmish, Jackson succeeded in recapturing the bridge,* 
beating back the bold Federal squad, and recovering his equipage. 
Meanwhile the battle of Cross Keys, a few miles to westward had 
begun, Ewell's Confederates facing Fremont and holding him in 
check until night allowed the vanquished Federals to retreat. 

All this time our merry train has been carrying us southward, 
and when the whistle sounds for Port Republic — the next station 
above Elkton — we are running straight across the river-plain on 



32 

which was fought the frightful battle of June roth, 1862, where the 
dead lay so thickly that Jackson thought they must outnumber the 
living. 

Here is the head of the South Fork of the Shenandoah, and the 
town takes its name from the fact that formerly fiat-boat navigation 
began at this "port." About four m.iles southwest, the North and 
Middle Rivers, the principal tributaries that go to make the main 
Shenandoah, unite, and at this point, South River, coming from the 
base of the Blue Ridge, joins them. In the angle between South and 
Middle Rivers lies the town, and through ft goes the valley turnpike 
en its way to the crossing of the Blue Ridge at Brown's Gap. From 
the cultivated river-plain a succession of terraces arise to the wooded 
spurs of the mountains. 

On the morning of the loth of June, the Union army under Shields 
had been planted below the town in a very advantageous position, 
Jackson's men were divided, but withdrawing Ewell's army from its 
position at Cross Keys, Jackson soon outnumbered the force of 
Shields, who could expect no help from Fremont. The fighting began 
early in the day, and was especially severe in the elevated woods 
upon the left of the line of battle, where Tyler's Federal guns were 
captured and re-captured by hand-to-hand conflicts in the thickets. 
At first the Confederates got the worst of it, and their general trembled 
for the result ; but his arrangements were so careful, his celerity in 
re-inforcing was so great and his men were so recklessly courageous, 
that they bloodily snatched victory from defeat and pressed the 
Federals so heavily that for a short time the retreat became a rout. 
The loss was terrific — a far larger percentage than is usual in battles ; 
and though the cavalry began to follow the fleeing foe, they were 
speedily recalled; and before night the whole Confederate army was 
hastily withdrawing into the security of Brown's Gap, Fremont, who 
had come to the bluffs on the western bank of the river, giving them 
a parting salvo. 

Meanwhile, Shields (and later, P^remont), under orders from 
McDowell, continued to retreat to the base of operations in the lower 
valley. These battles of Cross Keys and Port Republic closed Jack- 
son's momentous and brilliant campaigns of 1862 — closed them in the 
very region where they were begun with a small and dispirited army 
only three months before. The succeeding week he spread his camps 
in the park-like groves and dells which lie a little south of Port Re- 
.public — the very hills through which the track now winds so ingeni- 
ously. 

But Baily, who has a practical turn of mind far above me, has been 
listening to only a portion of my war stories, having gone off to chat 
with a gentleman who he somehow discovered was informed about 
iron matters in these hills. Reporting this conversation, Baily tells us 
that this region is full of metallic wealth and has long furnished iron 
and various other useful minerals to commerce, rivaling the mining 



districts of the Appalachian ranges north of the great valley. On the 
Massanutten outcrops of iron ores, classified as Clinton Nos. III. and 
v., occur in nearly every peak, while universally, almost, at the 
western base of the Blue Ridge, primordial iron comes to the surface. 
"We have just passed," says Baily, "at Shenandoah, between 
Luray and Elkton, the large Shenandoah Iron Works, where for many 
years charcoal-iron has been made, but now blast furnaces have been 
erected, and coke-iron is made. They tell me that the company owns 
35,000 acres of land along the foot of the mountains, only a small por- 
tion of which is under cultivation, and that the iron ore is quarried out 
of open excavations. This place was formerly called Milnes, and is 
now being rapidly developed by large capitalists." 

" The ore is a brown hematite, and the product is a neutral iron of 
especial value for foundry use. Only pig is cast now, but blooms can 
be made when the market justifies it. About three hundred and fifty 
men are employed." 

" Is that all there is at the station?" I ask. 

" No, it is the end of a division of the railway — you noticed that 
we changed locomotives ; and there are some repair-shops. The result 
is a busy little town which furnishes the neighboring farmers so 
steady a market for their beef, poultry, garden produce and forage, 
that they are well off and enhancing the value of their lands by 
steady improvements and a higher style of agriculture. Sixty or 
seventy dollars an acre is asked for the best farms in that neighbor- 
hood, though a great deal of unimproved land may be bought for ten 
dollars an acre." 

Iron, however, is not the whole mineral wealth of this region. 
Umber, ochre, copper, manganese, marble, kaolin, fire-clay and various 
other useful metals and earths are known to lie adjacent to the line of 
railway we are following, and are rapidly being availed of by capitalists. 
At Grottoes station of the Shenandoah Valley Railway, on the line 
of the two large and rich counties of Augusta and Rockingham, 130 
miles from Hagerstown, 1 10 miles from Roanoke and 40 miles south from 
Luray, is The Grottoes Hotel, a new establishment, well furnished, 
lighted throughout by electric lights, and kept in the very best manner 
by Mr. A. D. Wright, of the Midland Junction, Charlottesville, and 
the Danville, Va., hotels known by his name. 

The Grottoes Hotel is one of the meal stations of the Shenandoah 
Valley Railroad ; it is also, and more especially, the stopping and 
resting place for visitors to the two famous caverns known as Weyer's 
Cave and the Fountains Cave, together called the "Grottoes of the 
Shenandoah," which with their numerous halls and chambers of great 
extent occupy the largest part of the interior of the curiously formed 
and commanding ridge that rises so boldly just to the westward of 
Grottoes station and hotel, and but a short distance away across the 
stream-valley of the South. River of the Shenandoah and near the 
margin of that loveliest of rivers. 



34 




35 




36, 




GROTTOES STATION. 

From the broad verandas of the hotel, grand landscapes stretch 
away in all directions. To the east and south, over the tops of acres 
of forest of pines, oaks and scores of other trees, part of the great 
park of hundreds of acres of valley and stream, and forests, and ridge 
and table-land, pertaining to the Grottoes, appear the domes, spurs 
and majestic outlines of the Blue Ridge. To the northeast rolls 
away, in graceful and varied undulations, the famous valley of the 
Shenandoah, five and twenty miles in breadth, from the Blue Ridge 
on the east to the Great North or Shenandoah Mountains on the west, 
a glorious table-land, from 1,000 to 1,500 feet above tide, until miles 
away the remarkable Massanutten ranges (Stonewall Jackson's strate^ 
gic mountains) rise grandly, as a central axis in the valley, dividing 
it into eastern and western valleys, and the three giant mountain 
chains, with crest-lines from 2,500 to over 4,000 feet above the sea 
level, and the two included valleys stretch away until lost in the far 
distance. 

A noble avenue, a hundred and fifty feet wide, with walk ways, 
carriage ways and a wide riding way leads from the hotel to the west- 
ward, about half a mile, crossing South River of Shenandoah by a 
fine new suspension foot bridge, from which a lovely river landscape 
is seen, to the foot of Grottoes Ridge, whence nicely graded walks 
ascend the side of the Ridge ; one to the right to Weyer's Cave and 
the other one to the left to Fountains Cave. From these shaded ways, 
canopied by a great variety of trees and vines, and bordered by rocks 
and slopes, rich with ferns and wild flowers, lovely landscapes 
embracing rivers, plains, mountains and forests, farms and villages, 
and famous battle-fields open and expand until the resting houses at 
the entrances of the caves are reached, where easy seats invite to a 
leisurely enjoyment of a wide and wonderful prospect. 



If the way is followed that leads beyond the Fountains Cave there 
will be found on the top of Grottoes Ridge a plateau and park of 
remarkable beauty, ample groves, and plantations of pines and cedars, 
of oaks and walnuts, of elms and ashes, and of sc.ores of others of the 
many noble forest trees of Virginia, rich flora, all so disposed as to 
produce the finest effects of the landscape gardener, with unlimited 
opportunities at his command, while from every opening a grand 
panorama of wide valleys and grand mountain chains extend around 
with a sweep of more than a hundred miles. Ten thousand people 




THE CATARACT— GROTTOES OP THE SHENANDOAH 



would find room for the largest liberty of enjoyment with out-door 
nature in the groves, on the shaded river banks, on the grassy plains, 
and in the boating, bathing and fishing, all within the domain of the 
Grottoes of the Shenandoah. Its camping and drilling grounds are 
big enough for tens of thousands. , 

The greatest of the attractions of this place, though, arj; its 
wonderful caves. Weyer's Cave has more than a mile of halls, 
chambers and passages, all magnificently and wonderfully adorned 



38 

by stalactites and stalagmites of all sizes, from that of a straw to that 
of a great tower, and of almost every conceivable form. For ages the 
work of decorating the miles upon miles of walls, galleries, alcoves, 
arches and ceilings of the scores of rooms of this magnificent subter- 
ranean temple has gone on unceasingly, with no moment of respite, 
with myriad handed and all knowing nature for the artist, and so no 
wonder that nothing known can surpass the wonderful works here to 
be seen. Electric light having the power of many thousands of 
candles, operating by the alternating system, has, with remarkable 
skill and at great expense, been introduced into every part of this 
wonderful cavern, revealing thousands of forms of stalactitic beauty, 
especially in the lofty ceilings of the great cathedral-like halls, from 
60 to 90 feet high, that were never seen before. The noble " Wash- 
ington Hall," over 240 feet long and 60 feet to the ceiling ; the mag- 
nificent " Solomon's Temple," undoubtedly the most gorgeous single 
natural grotto in the world ; the grand " Tower of Babel," a mighty 
colonnaded stalagmite over 50 feet in circumference ; the superb 
'* Bridal Veil ;" the glittering "Diamond Waterfall ;" the "Garden 
of Eden," a museum of bewildering wonders. These and hundreds 
of other objects of unfailing interest are all made gloriously visible by 
the admirable electric lights. 

No expense has been spared to make every portion of this cave 
easy of access ; its floors are all dry and either solid stone or earth ; 
all narrow ways have been widened and steep ones been made easy, 
so there is nothing to hinder the fullest enjoyment of the wonders of 
thij famous cavern. Its dry and even tempered atmosphere (always 
about 53°) invites to exhilarating exercise so that no one suffers from 
weariness or fatigue during the one to two hours generally consumed 
in going through this cave. 

In Harper s New Monthly Magazine for December, 1854, the 55th 
number of that now widely read and almost venerable periodical, 
appeared the first of a series of articles entitled, "Virginia Illus- 
trated — Adventures of Porte Crayon and his Cousins," in which was 
included an illustrated description of the Weyer's Cave of the Grottoes 
of the Shenandoah. 

" Porte Crayon" was the noni de plume of Gen. David H. Strother, 
an artistic gentleman residing at Berkeley Springs, Va., at the time 
he wrote "Virginia Illustrated," which entitles him to recognition as 
one of the first of the Americans who have made its monthly magazines 
famous for their illustrated articles. 

" Porte Crayon " spent many hours in the Weyer Cave sketching 
and studying, with the eye and the fancy of an artist, some of the 
wonderful scenes of this most varied and famous of all known 
caverns. — The lapse of thirty-five years of nature's never ending 
work in the ornamentation of her grottoes has but added to the 
charms and brilliancy of the scenes sketched by this faithful artist. 



39 




40 

The only noticeable changes by the hand of man are those that have 
made all portions of this extensive and enchanting grotto easily 
accessible, and that have introduced, with skillful but conceded art, 
amid all its marvelous beauties, hundreds of the most brilliant electric 
lights that not only reveal more clearly what "Porte Crayon" saw and 
described, but thousands of wondrous forms of beauty in lofty fretted 
roofs and richly ornamented lady chapels, that could not be seen by the 
dim lights at his disposal." 

By the way," Baily remarks, as the train pulls up at Waynesboro 
junction, a mile from the large and well-known town of Waynesboro, 
*' Hotchkiss says this place deserves a name of its own, because it is 
going to be a great town some day," 

" Why does he think so ? " 

" On account of the ease of transportation to it from four directions 
of the crude materials ; of minerals and timber property abounding in 
the region to which it forms the centre, and of the machinery neces- 
sary to their manufacture." 

Just now Waynesboro is merely the crossing of our road by the 
Chesapeake and Ohio. A number passengers disembarked who were 
bound for the White Sulphur and other springs across the mountains 
to the westward, while some were going the other way to wine- 
making Charlottesville or to Richmond. To the White Sulphur and 
other famous Virginian mountain resorts we found this was coming 
to be a favorite route from both north and souths its own loveliness, 
the opportunity of thus seeing one or both of the two great " natural 
curiosities " of the AUeghanian region, Luray Caverns and the 
Natural Bridge, and the exceeding wildness of the scenery along the 
mountain division of the Chesapeake and Ohio (or of the Richmond 
and Alleghany for those who choose to go via Loch Laird and Clifton 
Forge), recommending it above other routes. The Madame was very 
anxious to go over to the White Sulphur, which her imagination, 
stimulated by traditions of the ante-bellum aristocracy, had painted 
in very glowing colors ; but I told her it was impossible now, and so 
we kept our seats and went rushing southward again through the 
green hills that divide the headwaters of the Shenandoah from the 
tributaries of the James. 

The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, to which I have referred (or at 
least this part of it), was known before the war as the Virginia Cen- 
tral ; and as it was one of the two routes between Richmond and 
the Valley of Virginia, it was of great importance to the Confederates. 
To destroy it, therefore, became one of the objects of every Federal 
force in the valley, though that end was not achieved until Sheridan's 
successes of 1864. 

Toward the close of that campaign the vicinity of Waynesboro 
became a continual skirmish-ground, and everything was laid waste. 
Before the winter of 1864-5 had passed, Sheridan again appeared in 



41 



force, the cavalry sent to contest his advance proving inefficient. The 
Confederate commander, Jubal Early, had collected his army as well 
as he could and posted them upon a ridge just on the further (west- 
ern) edge of Waynesboro, where Sheridan's advance came up with 
him on March 2d. " Custer at once sent three regiments around the 
enemy's left flank, while at the same time charging in front with the 
other two brigades. The position was carried in an instant, with 




little, if any loss on either 
side, and almost the entire 
force captured, all Early's 
wagons and subsistence, 
tents, ammunition, seventeen 
flags, eleven guns (including 

five found in the town) and, first and last, about i,6oo officers and 
men. » . . As for Early, Long, "Wharton and che other Confed- 
erate generals, they fled into the woods, and Early himself soon after 
b«.rely escaped capture by Sheridan's cavalry, while making his way 
to Richmond. The victory at Waynesboro left Sheridan complete 
master of the valley." 



43 

V. 

CRAB-TREE FALLS AND THE NATURAL 

BRIDGE. 

A Rougher Landscape. — Sources of the Shenandoah. — Crab-tree Falls. — Ascent of 
Three Thousand Feet of Cataracts. — View from Pinnacle Mountain. — 
Lexington and Loch Laird. — Approaching the Natural Bridge. — 
The Hotel. — Prue's Surprise. — Majesty of the Bridge. — 
The Attractions along Cedar Creek. — The Pic- 
ture from Above. — Surrounding Scenery 
and Amusements. — The Bridge 
by Moonlight. 

Though the vicinity of Waynesboro for some miles southward is 
a well cultivated farming and grazing region, by the time Stuart's 
Draft is reached the face of the country where the track passes has 
become too rough for farming, and the scene from the car windows is 
an ever-varying panorama of rugged hills and deep ravines. Almost 
the only signs of human occupation are small log-cabins, whose re- 
straint-hating, indolence-loving occupants earn a scanty-living by 
chopping logs ; gathering oak and hemlock bark (one of the leading 
products of this region, where large tanneries exist), and sumac leaves; 
in hunting, fishing and feeble farming. The hills we are passing 
across — a tangled series of folds belonging to the Blue Ridge — are 
called the Big Levees, and are dominated eastwardly by the Hump- 
back mountains. Their drainage forms the South River, and hence 
the uppermost source of the Shenandoah. The streams which go to 
make it up are countless, prattling down every green hollow. Now 
and then a pretty cascade is seen, like the Cypress falls opposite 
Riverside, leaping fierce and white out of the wooded precipice into 
a deep and quiet pool. 

The greatest of all cataracts in the Virginia mountains, however, 
is the Crab-tree falls, reached by the old pike road from Vesuvius to 
Montebello and the Tye River valley east of the Blue Ridge. Sheridan 
once passed a large part of his army across the mountains by this 
road. At the very summit, from among the topmost crags of Pinnacle 
peak, one of the highest in Virginia, comes the Crab-tree to take its 
fearful course. Thence it descends three thousand feet in making a 
horizontal distance of two thousand, forming "a series of cascades 
athwart the face of the rock, over which the water shimmers in waves 
of beauty, like veils of lace trailed over glistening steel." The course 
of the stream is distinctly visible from a long distance down the face 
of the great crag, which contrasts sharply with the leafy masses on 
each side, and forms a striking landmark. The cascades vary from 
over five hundred feet in the highest to fifty or sixty in the lowest, and 
are greatly different in form and appearance. The Crab-tree is not a 
large stream ; in one or two places the entire body of water is com- 
pressed into a shooting jet not more than six inches in diameter, but, 
with the economy of nature, nothing is lost in artistic effect. 

Three miles down Tye river the ascent of the falls is begun by 



43 

entering the forest and a chaos of massive rocks, " The forest is so 
dense," says H. L. Bridgman, of New York, "that scarcely can the 
sunlight pierce it. Stately oaks, wide spreading maples and hickories, 
the birch and beech, with an occasional pine, and at rare intervals the 
light gray foliage of the cucumber-tree, make up a forest scene of 
wonderful beauty. Scarcely are we within the woods, when, looking 
aloft, we see through the leafy green of tree-tops the white spray of 
;he ' Galvin ' cataract, named in compliment to our guide, and 150 
feet high. This is a clear, bold fall, and rather larger in volume and 
force than any of the others. The effects of the sunlight and shadow 
upon the fall and the forest are exceedingly graceful and picturesque, 
and from the beginning of the ascent all the way to the top the scene 
changes and shifts like a fairy panorama. . . . An hour or more of 
hard work and steady climbing brings us to the base of the * Grand 
Cataract,' the first leap of the entire series, a clear fall of over 500 feet. 
It was the Grand Cataract which we had seen from the road far below, 
and looking upward from its base, the sight was like a sheet of foam 
falling out of a clear sky. The water, pure as crystal, is not projected 
with sufficient force to send it clear of the rock, and so it falls over its 
face, veiling the rugged front of the mountain as with a fleece. 
Standing at its base and looking upward, the spectator does not realize 
its immense height, but comparison of the lofty trees which tower into 
the heavens without approaching half the height of the falls demon- 
strates the fact. At the very top and crown of the fall, the configuration 
of the rock gives the current a sharp diagonal set which adds much 
to its picturesque beauty. Midway a ledge of a few feet wide arrests 
the fall and throws it boldly forward in a straight line again adown a 
sheer and glistening precipice of more than 200 feet. At the base of 
the Grand Cataract daisies bloom, and the waters are quite shallow." 

It is possible to work one's way upward along these capricious 
cataracts to the very summit, and thence overlook a wide area of 
primitive mountain country. All about the observers tower peaks of 
the first rank, heaving against the blue of heaven a surging mass of 
foliage. " Dotting the mountain sides in every direction are cleared 
fields in which corn, wheat and tobacco are raised, the clearings 
sometimes extending to the very summits, while scattered here and 
there in all directions, nestling in the intervals and pockets of the 
ranges, are the log cabins of the moutaineers. Safe in these fortresses 
and upon a kindly and generous soil, with a genial and salubrious 
climate, the natives live from one generation to another an easy, 
thriftless and contented life. No one who sees the view from the 
head of the Crab-tree falls or Pinnacle mountain, no matter what his 
travels or experience in this or any other country have been or may 
be, will ever be able to forget its matchless charm, repose and 
serenity." 

Through such a region as that we are now running, by the help of 
a thousand curves, deep cuttings or lofty bridges. Now and then 



44 





CRABTREE FALLS, VESUVIUS STATION, SHENANDOAH VALLEY R.R. 



45 

wonderful landscapes open out — far views southward and westward 
into the richly blue folds of the mountains, but chiefly our eyes are 
held by green dells, the romantic river, and the captivating bits of 
ruined canal, which arrange themselves for an instant close to the 
track only to dissolve into new pictures with kaleidoscopic speed. 

Buena Vista is the appropriate name of a new and very progressive 
town founded within the past year upon the broad and nearly level 
plain between the mountains at this point. It forms one of the most 
interesting scenes along the route. The spectacle of this lovely 
valley, until recently only stirred from its silence by the shrill whistle 
of the passing locomotive, is an inspiring one. The enterprise is in 
the hands of the Buena Vista Company. 

Upon a commanding plateau above the town stands a handsome 
hotel, reached by an excellent avenue. From this point of outlook is 
seen the many avenues of the town, graded away to the very bases of 
the hills, and along them numerous structures already completed, 
shops, stores and homes. 

The large Buena Vista Iron Works occupies a central position, and 
an extensive tannery is also in operation. The excellent water-power 
of the picturesque North river is utilized by a paper mill, and many 
other industries are projected for the near future. At the point where 
the Shenandoah Valley and Chesapeake and Ohio tracks approach 
most closely, a handsome Union Depot has been completed. Schools 
and churches are already seen here and there, and every evidence of 
a substantial future is manifest to the visitor. 

The primary cause of this remarkable growth is found in the pres- 
ence of rich iron ore in large quantities in the immediate vicinity of 
the town. Ore openings may be found in almost any direction up 
among the hills, and no doubt narrow gauge railways will presently 
be built to the mines. 

At Loch Laird, the next station, a town has been plotted and con- 
siderable progress made in development. 

At Buena Vista we encounter the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, 
which forms an exceedingly picturesque route from Richmond. 
Its only availability to us here would be as the means of access to 
Lexington, a town which southern people are tond of calling the 
" Athens of Virginia," because of its intellectual society and regard 
for books. This arises from the fact that since its foundation it has 
been a school town, and has now the celebrated Military Institute of 
which the most distinguished son was " Stonewall " Jackson, who is 
buried there. 

"What river is this?" asks Prue, after we had been tracing the 
pretty stream for a few miles, having passed over the divide and now 
were beginning to follow descending instead of ascending currents, 
"The South River," I reply. 
" But I thought we had just left South River behind." 



46 




47 

" So we did. This is another, and a branch of the James. You might 
find a hundred South 'rivers,' 'forks,' 'branches,' and so on in the 
State. They were carelessly named by the people who never went — " 

" Natural Bridge !" shouts the brakeman, and we hurriedly gather 
up our baggage and alight, with, perhaps, the most pleasurable antici- 
pations oi the whole trip. 

It is two miles from the railway back into the broken hill country 
where the Natural Bridge spans one of the mountain streams. Hacks 
from the hotel awaited the train, and our party had soon begun the 
drive. A short distance brought us out upon a sort of ledge, where, 
some hundreds of feet directly beneath us, we could see the noble 
James, deep, wide and glossy, forcing its way along in the dignity of 
fullness and strength. On the other side a great hill rose from the 
water, and as we attained higher and higher levels, other ridge-like 
summits appeared behind each more savage and lonely than the pre- 
ceding. 

The road is good and winds prettily among the hills, between a 
gulf on one side and tangled brush slopes on the other. It was with 
pleasing suddenness, too, that we emerged at last upon the broad 
lawns and parks of the hotel property, with its array of handsome 
dormitories, and its groups of smaller pleasure buildings, summer- 
houses and gardens. It was supper-time, and we were content for 
that night to sit on the veranda, listen to the ball-room music, breathe 
the cool, balsamic air, and sleep the sleep of weariness. 

Breakfast was no sooner despatched next morning, however, than 
we hastened to satisfy our curiosity as to this great bridge " not built 
with hands." which justly ranks among America's "seven wonders." 

The lawns are cleared around the head of a shallow ravine, the 
extreme upper point of which is occupied by an enormous mineral 
spring and fish basin. Down the ravine from the spring goes a well- 
graded pathway, which quickly disappears in the woods standing 
along the tumbling cascades of a brook that traverses the estate, and 
we follow it gleefully until it has descended three or four hundred 
feet into the leafy screen and rocky seclusion of one of Appalachie's 
most lovely glens. Prue has been sauntering on ahead, and turns a 
corner. As she does so we see her lift her head, a wide-eyed glow of 
surprise illumines her fair face, and she utters a little exclamation 
of delight. A step forward and we stand by her side and share her 
excitement — the bridge is before us ! 

The first impression is the lasting one — its majesty! It stands 
alone. There is nothing to distract the eye. The first point of view 
is at sufficient distance, and somewhat above the level of the founda- 
tion. Solid walls of rock and curtaining foliage guide the vision 
straight to the narrows where the archsprings colossal from side to 
side. Whatever questions may arise as to its origin, there is nothing 
hidden or mysterious in its appearance. The material of the walls is 
the material of the bridge. Its piers are braced against the moun- 
tains, its enormous keystone bears down with a weight which hoias 



48 




BUENA VISTA SCENES. 



49 




HOTEL BUENA VISTA, NORTH VIEW. 




^^^V^fv'^ 



BUENA VISTA PAPER MILL. 



50 




51 



all the rest immovable, yet which does not look ponderous. Every 
part is exposed to our view at a glance, and all parts are so propor- 
tionate to one another and to their surroundings — so simple and com- 
parable to the human structures with which we are familiar, that the 
effect upon our minds is not to stun, but to satisfy completely our 
sense of the beauty of curve and upright, grace and strength drawn 
upon a magnificent scale. " It is so massive," exclaims Mr. Charles 
Dudley Warner, " so high, so shapely, the abutments rise so solidly 
and spring into the noble arch with such grace and power ! . . . 
Through the arch is the blue sky ; over the top is the blue sky ; great 
trees try in vain to reach up to it, bushes and vines drape and soften 
its outlines, but do not conceal its rugged massiveness. It is still in 
the ravine, save for the gentle flow of the stream, and the bridge 
seems as much an emblem of silence and eternity as the Pyramids." 
Descending further the path cut along the base of the cliffs, which, 
as one writer has said, arise " with the decision of a wall, but without 
its uniformity — massive, broken, beautiful, and supplying a most ad- 
mirable foreground." We advance under the arch, and gaze straight 
up at its under side which is from sixty to ninety feet wide. It is 
almost two hundred feet above the stony bed at Cedar creek, but Baily 
doesn't remember 
this, and fancies he 
can hurl a pebble 
to the ceiling. Vain 
youth ! Even gen- 
tle Prue laughs at 
him, and the swal- 
lows weaving their 
airy flight in and 
out from sunlight 
to shadow, fear- 
lessly swoop lower 
and twitter more 
loudly, deriding his 
foolish ambition. 

Crossing the gay 
torrent on a foot- 
bridge, we wan- 
dered up the creek 
a mile or more, past 
Hemlock island ; 
past thecave where 
saltpetre was pro- 
cured for making 
powder, in 1812, 
and again during the Confederate struggle, and even penetrated the 
low portal within which a "lost" river murmurs and echoes to our 




THE LOST RIVER 



53 




53 

ears its unseen history, as it plunges through the dark recesses ol its 
subterranean course ; and tlie farther we went the more ruggeO; 
thickly wooded and charmingly untamed was the gulch. Finally the 
walls closed in altogether, but finding a boat we crossed to a stairway 
of stone, leading to Lace Water falls, where the stream leaps a hun- 
dred feet, falling in a dazzling dishabille of rainbow-tinted bubbles 
and spray, 

** The Glen" above the Bridge extends for a mile to Lace Water 
Falls, where Cedar creek leaps one hundred feet from the upper 
level. This glen was probably once an immense cave. The path 
follows the stream or is cut into the rocks that form its bank. On the 
right, a little above the Bridge, Cathedral Wall projects boldly, 
covered with mosses and lichens. The precipice on the left is in color 
light blue, and delicately traced with vines and evergreens. Farther 
up, the cliffs on the right. are red-brown, scarred and seamed, and 
crowned with crags. 

Hemlock island is an immense pyramid of evergreens. 

The curious visitor is likely to step across the brawling little 
stream along here, and peep into the gloom of a low-roofed cavern of 
which more anon. 

The upper part of the glen* is densely wooded until the walls close 
in and the path ends. A boat is here taken that lands at the Stone 
Stairway. Climbing this, Lace Water falls are on the right. The 
slopes and steps of the cascade are smooth, and the waters dash from 
side to side fitfully, and weave a, beautiful veil of foam and spray. 

The Bridge seen from this (the upper) side is imposing, and its 
magnitude is perhaps more striking ; but on the whole it is not so ef- 
fective, regarded as an object by itself, as when studied from below. 
Harriet Martineau, who once visited the spot, and has written enthu- 
siastically of it in the second volume of her "Retrospect of Westet^y 
Travel " (1838), declares that she found most pleasure in looking at the 
Bridge from the path just before reaching its base. *' The irregular 
arch," she writes, " is exquisitely tinted with every shade of gray and 
brown , while trees encroach from the sides and overhang from the 
top, between which and the arch there is an additional depth of fifty- 
six feet. It was now early in July ; the trees were in their brightest 
and thickest foilage ; and the tall beeches under the arch contrasted 
their verdure with the gray rock, and received the gilding of the sun- 
shine as it slanted into the ravine, glittering in the drips from the 
arch, and in the splashing and tumbling waters of Cedar creek, which 
ran by our feet." 

Nevertheless, if you are willing to regard the great arch only as a 
part of the ense?nble^ and to take into just account what is around and 
beyond it as a proper part of the scene, I advise you to place yourself 
a hundred 3''ards above and then observe what a charming picture of 
glistening torrent, flower-hung rocks, stately trees and far away 
mountain crests is framed into its oval ; and how incomparable is the 




VJ^W OF THE NATURAL BRIDGE FROM BENEATH, LOOKING DOWN STREAM. 



55 

colossal frame itself — what sublimity of desigrv — what wealth of dec- 
oration and lavishness of color! 

It cannot be too strongly insisted upon that while this curious 
product of water erosion (slowing turning a cave into a long tunnel 
and then, by the falling of the most of the roof, leaving only an arch- 
like segment of the tunnel in the shape of a bridge) is the central at- 
traction; there are a thousand other sources of enjoyment and pastime 
at this pilgrimage-point. 

For those who are content with rest and gossip, fresh air by day 
and dancing at night, the fine new hotel offers every inducement for 




TOP OF THE BRIDGE. 



a prolonged stay. To the larger class which seeks more active pleas- 
ure during the summer vacation, a wide range of good roads and 
interesting country is open for exploration. "The Bridge," says the 
admirable little guide-book issued by the hotel people, "connects two 
of five round-topped mountains that rise boldly from the great 
valley of Virginia, near the confluence of James and North rivers. 
These have been named Lebanon, Mars hill. Mount Jefferson, Lincoln 
heights, and Cave mountain, and embraced in the park. Private 
carriage-roads, nearly ten miles long, lead around or over them, an<J(E 
give through arches cut in the forest, or from open spaces, a wonderful 
variety and extent of mountain scenery. 



56 

" Eight hundred feet below the summit of Mt. Jefferson lie the 
green valleys of the rivers. Eight miles to the east the Blue Ridge 
forest-covered and mist-crowned, rises to its greatest height, 4 300 
feet above the sea, and extends to north and south nearly one hundred 
miles before it is lost in the dim distance. A little to the left the glint 
of broken granite alone shows where the river bursts through, and at 
the right the crest lowers so that the Peaks of Otter may overlook. 
At the south, Purgatory mountain, and at the north, House mountain, 
throw their immense masses half across the plain. Against the 
western sky North mountain, the ' Endless mountain ' of the Indians, 
lies cold and colorless. In the lifted central space of this great amphi- 
theatre the park is located." 

An old turnpike crosses upon the Bridge, but amid the apparently 
unbroken forest, few persons would discover it till told by the driver. 
In one of his inimitable articles in Harper's Magazine^ before the war, 
Porte Crayon gives a ludicrous account of how his party behaved on 
the brink of the chasm ; and Miss Martineau confesses how her search 
was baffled. "While the stage rolled and jolted," she writes, "along 
the extremely bad road, Mr. L. and I went prying about the whole 
area of the wood, poking our horses' noses into every thicket and 
between any two pieces of rock, that we might be sure not to miss 
our object, the driver smiling after us whenever he could spare atten- 
tion from his own not very easy task of getting his charge along. 
With all my attention I could see no precipice, and was concluding to 
follow the road without more vagaries, when Mr. L., who was a little 
in advance, waved his whip as he stood beside his horse, and said, 
' Here is the Bridge !' I then perceived that we were nearly over it, 
the piled rocks on either hand forming a barrier which prevents a 
careless eye from perceiving the ravine which it spans. I turned 
to the side of the road, and rose in my stirrup to look over, but 
I found it would not do. . . . The only way was to go down 
and look up ; though where the bottom could be was past my 
imagining, the view from the top seeming to be of foliage below — 
foliage forever." 

The bridle paths wind through in endless mazes. 

Before crossing the Bridge the pedestrian will stop on Pulpit rock 
and Cedar cliff— wild, over-hanging crags, from which the Bridge 
and the glen are seen to advantage. After crossing, at the left a 
distant view of the valley is had from the dizzy height of Marshall's 
Pillar, and the path to the right, following along the edge of Rock 
Rimmond, leads to the Chimney's, Crow's Nest, the Black Gables, and 
Point Despair. 

The driveways do not cease at the Bridge, but continue by an 
elevated course which gives some remarkable outlooks, and takes in 
3& various notable points. 

The hotel is open all winter, and there are few days in this 
southern latitude when it would not be entirely comfortable to visit 



57 




THE SALTPETRE CAVE ON CEDAR CREEK» 



58 

all the points I have mentioned, and see the Bridge under a grimmer 
aspect, truly, than when mantled in the garlands of summer, yet with 
none of its grandeur diminished. 

THE GRANT FROM GEORGE III. 

To Thomas Jefferson in - - - . . 1774 

To Joseph Lackland in - _ _ . 1833 

To Houston & Cole in . _ . . „ 1838 

To John B. Luster in - - - - . 1841 

To Jesse Wooten in ----- - 1843 

To John W. Garrett _ - _ . _ 1849 

To Anderson & Hitchcock in - - - - 1862 

To Michael Harman in - - - - - 1863 

To Asher Harman in - _ - _ „ 1875 

To H. C. Parsons in - - - „ _ 1881 

Historical. — The earliest mention of the Bridge is by Burnaby, 
in 1759, "^ho speaks of it as a " natural arch or bridge joining two 
high mountains with a considerable river underneath." 

A bloody Indian fight occurred near here about 1770. Arrow- 
heads, fragments of pottery, pipes, etc., are frequently found in the 
fields and roads of the neighborhood. 

Lightning struck the bridge in 1779, and hurled down an immense 
mass of rock. 

Washington when a surveyor for Lord Fairfax visited it, and 
carved his name where it may now be seen. 

During the Revolution the French organized two expeditions to 
visit it. From their measurements and diagrams a picture was made 
in Paris, which for nearly half a century was copied in Europe and 
America as correct. 

The place was much visited in the early part 'of this century. 
Marshall, Monroe, Clay, Benton, Jackson, Van Buren, Sam Houston, 
and others were registered here. 

The original Bridge tract was granted by the king to Thomas 
Jefferson, in 1774. After he was president he visited the place, and 
surveyed and made the map with his own hands. 

The next year he returned, bringing two slaves, Patrick Henry 
and wife. For them he built a log cabin with two rooms, and directed 
one to be kept open for the entertainment of strangers. The slaves 
were never manumitted and never recalled, the survivor dying where 
her master placed her twenty years before. Jefferson left here a large 
book " for sentiments." This was written full, and with its priceless 
record was accidentally destroyed, in 1845. Only a few extracts can 
be found. Jefferson spoke of it as yet to be ** a famous place, that will 
draw the attention '>f the world." Marshall wrote of ** God's greatest 
miracle in stone.", ~^Clay, of "the bridge not made with hands, that 
spans a river, carries a highway and makes two mountains one.** 



59 

Henry Piper, a student, in 1818, attempted to carve his name the 
highest, and found that he could not return. He then undertook the 
incredible feat of climbing to the top, and accomplished it. 

Corbin Lackland fell from Pulpit Rock in 1833, and Robert Walker 
in 1845. Both were killed. 

A stranger leaped from the Bridge in 1843, and his body was 
never identified. 

John Rice fell from a crag, but was saved by the branches of a 
tree, in 1865. 

Miss Randolph's celebrated adventure occurred on a large cedar 
stump, since demolished by relic hunters, which stood near the centre 
of the arch on the upper side. 

The first hotel was built by Major Douthat, a Revolutionary 
soldier, in 1815, at a place about two miles north of the Bridge, An 
opposition hotel was built near the former in 1820, In 1S28, Captain 
Lackland, also a Revolutionary soldier, built the first hotel on the 
location of the dwelling house of the present owner, calling it 
Jefferson Cottage. The Natural Bridge Hotel was built two years 
later. 

At present the hotels consist of four principal buildings. Forest 
Inn, Appledore, Pavilion, and Bachelors' Lodge. These are supplied 
with running water and connected by bridges, and are in every 
respect elegantly furnished. 

"Well," remarked Pruc, when I had read over to her what I have 
written, "I do think you have made about as great 2^ failure as I have 
ever seen. Why you haven't begun to tell of half ^^vo, good times we 
had at \haX perfectly lovely place ! " 

" I know it," I confess with humility, 

"Well, at least'' she went on, crushing my poor effort, " I would 
describe the gorge seen by moonlight. Don't you remember, Theo, 
that evening when we left the hop, stole away from the crowd on the 
piazzas and ran down the dewy lawn together?" 

" You looked like a fairy that night, Prue, in your floating lace," 

"And then, how we crept by those big, ogreish arbor-vitae trees, 
and how you laughed at me, because I was a little timid in that 
dreadfully dark shadow under the crag ; and how we tried to hear 
words in the tinkle of rivulets down the ledges ? Then, don't you 
remember with what a startle of delight we came in sight of the 
ravine, and you said the Bridge must have been carved out of silver 
and ebony ? Can't you tell about that ? " 

" No, Prue — and I shouldn't like to try. Let those who come after 
us find it out for themselves as one of a hundred novel joys which await 
the sojourner at the Natural Bridge." 



60 




THE ARBOR-VIT.'E TREES, AND GIANTS* STAIRWAY. 



61 

VI. 

THE NEW CITY OF ROANOKE. 

On the Bank of the James. — The Gap, — Buchanan's Iron Works.— A Town Saved by 

its Captors. — Crossing- to the Valley of the Roanoke. — Baily's Triumphant 

Quotation. — Beginning- and raison d^ etre of Roanoke. — History 

of the Consolidated Railways. — Amenities of Roanoke. — 

Machine Works. — Iron Furnaces. — Stock 

Yards. — Minor Factories. — The 

Great Hotel. — Sunset 

Pictures. 

Rolling slowly across the lofty iron bridge which carries the track 
over the James at the Natural Bridge station, we skirt the base of the 
mountains on the southern bank, and follow closely all the windings 
of the stream. Not only is it impossible for the railway to leave its 
margin, for the most part, but through long distances it has been 
needful to dig into the foot of the precipitous hillside in order to make 
room for the tracks. On the opposite side run the tracks of the Rich- 
mond and Alleghany Railroad, following the line of the disused canal, 
whose broken dams still ruffle the current, and whose ruined locks are 
sinking into shapeless decay. 

As we approach Buchanan, the hills grow even steeper, and crowd 
upon the river so closely that its current is greatly deepened and 
confined, and rushes with noisy turbulence along a lane of gigantic 
sycamores, willows and other water-loving trees, toward the gap 
where the James bursts its way through the lofty cross-range of 
Purgatory mountain. This gap is one which will especially interest 
not only the scenery hunter, but the geologist ; for, in the northern 
wall of the gorge, where the river has exposed a vertical face of rock 
of great height and breadth, it is easy to see how the rocks there 
have been bent upward into an arch as high as the hill, the concentric 
strata in which can be counted almost at a glance. Every exposed 
cliff and railway-cutting gives evidence to the observant eye of how 
the. substance of these confused knolls and ridges has been con- 
torted ; but it is rare that so plain a cross-section of folding is offered 
as in this exceedingly picturesque gap. 

Between Waynesboro and Buchanan, the town which lies just 
above the gap, many incidents of historical interest might have been 
enumerated, and the names mentioned of many great men who were 
its sons ; but no consequential operations of either army in the late 
war occurred there. At the latter town, however, began a series of 
very memorable scenes. 

On the evening of the 14th of June, 1864, Buchanan was noisy 
with furnaces, forges, foundries and mills, especially the powerful 
branch of Tredegar Iron Works, where cannon, ammunition, and 
other iron supplies were cast for the Confederate government. Here 
were flouring and blanket mills also, and in the neighborhood lay 
farms producing food and forage for the army. In the town, as guard, 
was McCausland with the cavalry which had just come back from 



G2 




JAMES RIVER GORGE. 



03 

disasters before Sheridan. Demoralized and weak, these troopers 
were dismayed to hear that the Yankees were just across the river in 
great force, and would capture them all in a hurry. The river was 
easily fordable here, but McCausland (the same who set fire to 
Chambersburg and several Maryland villages), saw fit to burn the 
bridge against the protest of the citizens. From the burning bridge 
houses caught fire, and the whole town would have been destroyed 
had not the Yankee soldiers turned firemen and helped extinguish the 




NEAR BUCHANAN 



flames. This salvage accomplished, the captors (Hunter's fifteen 
thousand raiders) destroyed the ordnance factories which were so 
valuable to the Confederacy, and pushed toward the Peaks of Otter, 
"at a great expense of pioneer labor and bush fighting." 

The James river, at Buchanan, passes close to its southern water- 
shed ; and having crossed the ridges which closely beset the town in 
that direction we are free from the grasp of the sterile and jungle- 
covered hills and descend into the valley of the Roanoke, through the 
farming and fruit raising districts of Houston, Troutville and Clover- 
dale. Seventy thousand apple trees were planted in Cloverdale alone 
during 1883 ; and — 

"Cut it short!" Baily calls out with that disrespect for his elders 
which will be the death of him some day, ** Here's our guide-book 
telling us all about it. Listen to this : 



*• We enter the Roanoke valley amid scenes of surpassing beauty. 
The setting sun purples the tops of the mountains and throws its 
slanting rays over the rich field and pasture lands ; the twilight steals 



64 

out of the forest and dims the blue thread of mist along the James ; 
the cattle low in the shaded lanes, the sheep-bells tinkle on the hilla ; 
^olian winds ring among the dusky trees, 

* Night draws her mantle and pins it with a star I * 

"The city of Roanoke blazes up ahead like an illumination; 
red-mouthed furnace-chimneys lift like giant torches above the plain; 
the roar of machinery, the whistle of engines, the ceaseless hum of 




CROZER IRON WORKS. 



labor and of life in the very heart of a quiet mountain-locked valley. 
We roll into the finest depot in the state, and are escorted to a hotel 
that would do credit to the proudest city. We tourists go to bed 
dumfounded !" 

'* That's the way to do it !" cries Baily, closing his book in triumph. 
And that's just the way we did. 



The nucleus of this city of Roanoke was a small village known as 
the "Lick," where a salt lick, or saline impregnation of a piece of 
marshy land, originally attracted the wild animals of the vicinity, 
and, with the advance of settlement, the domestic animals of the 
the pioneers. It was on a post-road, and had a tavern, store and 
post-office, but is now simply a suburb tenanted wholly by negroes. 



65 




A MOUNTAIN RIFT, HEAR ROANOKE. 



66 

The country round about was exceptionally rich in agricultural land 
and forest growth, and soon attracted settlement and cultivation. On 
the opening of the Virginia and Tennesse Railway, in November, 
1852, the business of the neighborhood naturally gravitated to the 
immediate vicinity of the line, and a town was started about the 
railway station called " Big Lick, "half a mile distant from " Old Lick," 
which finally became a hamlet of about 600 people. 

In 1870, the Virginia and Tennessee, by consolidation with its 
connecting lines, became the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad, 
and this having become embarrassed in its finances was purchased by 
a syndicate of capitalists in Philadelphia, most of whom were already 
interested in the Shenandoah Valley Railroad, then in course of 
construction. It was decided to continue the latter line to a junction 
with the former at Big Lick (achieved in June, 1882), and operate them 
in association. The name of the Atlantic. Mississippi and Ohio Rail- 
road was changed to Norfolk and Western. An operating arrangement 
for twenty-five years was concluded in September, 1881, with the East 
Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad, and its leased lines, and 
the Shenandoah Valley Railroad, and the entire system of 2,203 miles 
of railway has since that date been worked in entire harmony in all 
matters of general traffic, as the Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia 
Air Line. Economy and efficiency necessitated some central point for 
the control of the Norfolk and Western and Shenandoah Valley Rail- 
roads, the head-quarters of their direction, position of the shops for 
construction and repair of equipment, and residence of many of their 
employees. A company was therefore formed*, which gradually 
bought several thousand acres of land around the junction, nearly all 
of which was farm land, procured the legal authority and laid out a 
town site, which was named Roanoke after the river which flows half 
a mile southward. 

This was in the fall of 1881. Now Roanoke is a city of lively 
business appearance, and of new, modern, and in many cases 
very handsome houses, with a population of twenty thousand, and 
more coming. Its streets are lighted by gas, and the whole town is 
supplied with sweet, pure water drawn from " Big Spring " a mile and 
a half away, which is one of the most picturesque spots in the valley 
of the Roanoke river, whose lively current purls near by. The town 
contains a number of churches, good schools, a library association, an 
opera house, and various other means of mental and moral culture, 
as well as of material progress ; while the presence of so many 
executive officers and their families, presupposes a society of more 
intelligence and social experience than is usually observed in so new 
a town. 

" The requirements of such a population," says a recent report 
shown me by the indefatigable Baily, "almost entirely consumers, 
and the position of the city, at such an important railway junction, 
surrounded by an agricultural territory of such great productiveness. 



67 




68 



with abundance of iron ores on every side, vast supplies of coal and 
coke within easy distance, and such a nucleus of manufacturing 
industry already established, seem to confirm the promise of e pros- 
perity built upon the most solid foundation, and capable of indefinite 
expansion." 

The largest element in the progress of Roanoke was the building 
of the Roanoke Machine Works, which owns a large tract of land and 
has constructed extensive buildings in the angle between the two 
roads. These buildings consist of brick shops, engine-houses and mills, 
for the construction of locomotives, stationary engines, cars of every 
grade and description, covering many thousands of square feet, and are 
supplied with all the ponderous and complicated machinery necessary 
to make all sorts of bridges, and all kinds of cast or forged iron work. 
This dees not mean merely that the machinery or cars may be put to- 
gether here ; but, except a 
few specialties, every part 
of the locomotive or car, 
from the wheels to the last 
ornament, is made and fit- 
ted as well as '*set up" here. 
It would be out of place in 
a pamphlet of this nature 
to give an extended de- 
scription of such works, to 
which these railways look 
for nearly all .heir rolling 
stock ; but the visitor to 




BIG Sr«ING, NEAR ROANOKS. 



69 

Roanok-e will find it well worth his while to go through them. 
The raw material of iron and steel used is largely supplied by 
the Crozer Steel and Iron Company, whose blast-furnace is a quarter 
of a mile away, and another object of interest to tourists, who often 
go at night to witness the thrilling spectacle of drawing the molten 
iron from the furnace into the molds where it will be cast in "pigs." 
This company derives its ores (brown hematite) mainly from the 
upland mines owned by it near Blue Ridge station, ten miles east- 
ward, and from the Houston mines, fifteen miles northward. The 
yield sometimes reaches a hundred tons a day, and the greater part 
is marketed in Pennsylvania in successful competition with local 
manufacturers. Another similar enterprise is the Rohrer Iron 
Company, which owns extensive deposits of high grade limonite ore, 
half a dozen miles south of town. This property is reached by a 
narrow gauge railway, which may ultimately be extended through to 




HOTEL ROANOKE. 



the Danville and New River Railroad, in North Carolina, and at its 
terminus in West Roanoke the company owns land upon which it now 
stores and ships its products, and will probably construct a furnace. 
Near there are the Roanoke stock-yards, where abundant conveniences 
for the transference of cattle are provided, together with a hotel for 
the drovers and traders, having telegraphic communication with 
northern markets. 

In addition to these larger concerns many smaller ones contribute 
to the prosperity of the place ; such as tobacco factories, lumber- 
working mills, cigar-making shops, spoke factories, bottling works, 
and the like. So rapid and persistent has been the growth of tho 
little city, the site of, which three years ago was all a wheat field, 
that although the Town Company had expended $600,000, its profits 
have been very satisfactory. 



70 



For the equestrian, the vicinity of Roanoke is full of opportu- 
nities. A hard, even road leads away eastward over the ridge, where 
most of the handsome homes of the residents are built, and brings us 
to the Big Spring, a fountain-head of water sufficiently powerful to 
run the huge wheel of a flour-mill, and to supply the city with a 
plentitude of the purest water. 

To the westward other roads wind away into the hills. Under 
the pilotage of two genial citizens we made a saddle jour- 
ney of discovery in this direction. We found, hidden away 




TINKER AND MILL 
MOUNTAINS, ROANOKE. 

in the peaceful 
seclusion of a 
pretty valley, the 
Hollins Institute, ' 

a popular seminary for young 
ladies, always filled with 
merry and bright -eyed 
maidens from every state ot 
the South, under tuition of 
an excellent corps of instruc- 
tors. Two miles beyond we came upon one of those sermons in 
stone which are as an open page to the geologist — a rift in the ledge 



71 




I. — A SHADY PORCH. 



HOTEL ROANOKE. 



2. — MAIN STAIRWAY. 



where a little fretful stream poured down between the rocky jaws 
over the ruins of a log dam and past the remnants of a flume and 
mill — as pretty a bit of rockscape as one will find in these mountains. 
Here the pent-up waters of a vast inland lake have sometime burst 
through and scaitered the fragments of the massive gateway right 
and left through the valley. We found just time to make a hasty 
sketch, and retraced our steps to the Institute, beneath the hospitable 
roof of which we tarried that night. 

Returning to Roanoke in the morning by the mountain road, our 
artist halted to add the bold outlines of Tinker and Mill mountains to 



72 

his sketch-book, and we wished, when we drew rein at the hotel an 
hour later, that our ride had been twice as long. 

The three buildings which catch the eye of the traveler, and 
surprise him are the railway station and its "low-ceiled, dainty" 
eating-house in the Queen Anne style — though as Charles Dudley 
Warner said of it, that queen probably never sat in so tasteful a 
a dining-room or had so good a dinner ; the railway head-quarters, 
falling in a cataract of peaked roofs and balconied fronts down the 
slope of the street ; and the splendid hotel crowning the hill in the 
midst of lawns, parterres of flowers and ceaseless fountains. In the 




LOBBY OF THE HOTEL ROANOKE. 



presence of the accompanying illustrations it would be superfluous to 
describe their outward appearance. 

Interiorly — to speak now of the Hotel Roanoke — the wood-work 
is hard pine, finished in the natural grain ; the furniture ash and 
cherry, and all the arrangements tasteful as well commodious. The 
parlor is as pretty a room as you will find in many a mile, and the 
dining-room light and cheerful, with small tables and growing 
plants. The table and service are of a high order; and I do 
not know a better resting place for the tourist than this. All this may 
seem high praise for a hotel, but it is given ungrudgingly. We spent 
a good many pleasant days there and paid for them squarely ; hence 
I can say what I please, and sum it up in the candid opinion that 
Hotel Roanoke has nothing to approach it (save at Luray) between 
Philadelphia and Florida. 

There was a certain corner of one of the upper piazzas a little out 
of the way, where we used to like to sit an hour or so after tea, 



to 

smoking our evening cigars, watching the glories of the sunset, and 
discussing things in a hopeful strain that would have vexed Michiavelli 
to the soul. The mountains stand in an irregular circle about Roanoke, 
none too near for the best effect, and the western view is an especially 
fine one. The lowering orb of light sinks grandly behind the line of 
mountain wall, across whose serrations its last rays gush in a blinding 
effulgence which slowly pales away through every rosy and nacreous 
tint into the sweet twilight of the summer night, I remember a 
remark by Prue, that the day here was like the fabled dolphin which 
in its death put on a shimmering robe of swiftly changing colors, and 
so passed away gloriously. Nor is the beauty all in the sky, for the 
foreground is, nearest, the picturesque structures of the town, then a 
billowy stretch of green and bosky knolls, and finally the obliquely 
retreating array of the Alleghanies, where , 

" headland after headland flame 
Far into the rich heart of the West." 




THE ROANOKE, 



7-1 



The Lui(aY i\^E Kp Hotel CofflpAjY. 



NOTICE TO VISITORS. 

To prevent confusion or misunderstanding, and to guard against imposition, visitors 
are requested to pay particular attention to the following regulations : — 

ADMISSION TO THE CAVERNS. 

Visitors are admitted to the Caverns from 7.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m., during which time 
no charge is made for the electric light. After 6.00 p.m. a special charge is made for 
admission, and the electric liglit will not run unless by special arrangement. 

From 7.00 a.m. tilt 6.00 p.m., including electric light, - - $1.00 
After 6.00 p.m., without electric light, _____ 7.50 

A special charge will be made as follows for electric light, if desired by visitors 
after C.co p.m.: — 

In Addition to the Night Rate of Admission. 
For ONE Visitor, - - - - - - - $2.00 

" TWO Visitors, {each), - 7.00 

•' THREE " "_._-_- 75 

" FOUR " " so 

.. yr/^£ .. „ 25 

For SIX or MORE Visitors, NO EXTRA CHARGE will be made. 

N. B. — A small charge is made at the Cave House for taking care of articles of 
baggage. 

Cave Photographs, Specimens, Guide Books, etc., may be purchased at fixed prices. 
No other charges than those specified are permitted. 

Ordinary clothing should be worn m the Caverns. Ladies should wear overshoes. 
No special changes of dress are needed, and extra wraps are superfluous — the cave 
temperature being 56° F. at all seasons. Canes, sticks,- etc., are not allowed in the 
Caverns. Smoking is prohibited. 

^^° Visitors are urgently requested to aid in protecting the formations in the 
Caverns from defacement and mutilation. 



Under the laws of Virginia, persons detected in breaking or defacing the 
formations may be arrested and fined. 



CAVE HACKS. 



Authorized Hacks make regular trip? to the Caverns. Special trips will be made 
from the Railroad Station and from the Inn when required. Railroad coupons for hack 
transportation will be honored on any trip of authorized hacks. 

Rates per Round Trip. 
Per Passenger on REGULAR trips from Railroad Station, - 35 Cents. 
Per Passenger on SPECIAL trips from the Inn or Railroad Station, 50 Cents. 

N.B. — Visitors are particularly requested to retain the " RETURN " hack coupon 
until they return from the Caverns, and not to surrender it on the " GOING" trip to 
the Caverns. 



CAVERNS OF LURAY, 

LURAY STATION, E. J. ARMSTRONG, 

Shenandoah Valley R.R. Superintendent. 



75 

Li^t! of Agent^ of lip ppnandoah Valle^ I(ontB. 

For Through Tickets, Time Tables, Sleeping Car Reservations, Tourists* 
GuiuE Books and General Information, 
Apply to or address by mail any of the following Offices 
IN XHE ISORXH A:KD EAST: 

BOSTON, No. 3 Old State House; 205, 211. 214, 232, 290 and 322 Washington St.; and 

at the Depots of the New York Lines; C. P. Gaither, New England Agent, 290 

Washington St.; J. H. McCormack, Traveling Agent. 
Also at Railroad Ticket Offices at Providence, Worcester, Springfield, Hartford, New 

Haven, Bridgeport, Stamford, etc. 
NEW YORK, at No. i Astor House; No. 8 Battery Place; 415, 435, 849 and 944 Broad- 
way 134 East 125th St.; Depots foot of Desbrosses and Courtlandt Sts., and Office 

of Line, 303 Broadway. L. J. Ellis, General Eastern Passenger Agent; James E. 

Prindle, New York Passenger Agent. Telephone number, John 563. 
BROOKLYN, at No. 4 Court St., and Office of Brooklyn Annex, foot Fulton St. 
JERSEY CITY, at Penn. R. R. Depot Ticket Office; also at Passenger Station Ticket 

Offices Penn. R. R., at Elizabeth, Rahway, New Brunswick and Trenton, N. J.; 

Newark, 789 Broad St. and Market St, Station. 
PHILADELPHIA, at Nos. 838, 833 and 1348 Chestnut St., and Broad St. Depot; also 

at R. R. Ticket Offices Penn, R. R. at Germantown, Pa.; Chester, Pa.; Wilmington, 

Del. 
HARRISBURG, at Ticket Office of Cumberland Valley R. R.; also Ticket Offices 

Northern Central R. R.. Williamsport, Elmira, Canandaigua, etc. 
BUFFALO, 19 Exchange St. and 11 East Main St., Rochester, N. Y. 
PITTSBURGH, at Penn. Railroad Ticket Office. 
BALTIMORE, at Ticket Offices B. & P. and B. & O., Western Maryland R. R,, 217 

East Baltimore St., at Depot Western Maryland R. R., and Office of Line, 129 East 

Baltimore St. Kennon Jones, i'lgent. 
WASHINGTON, at B. & O. Offices. M. Du Perow, Pass. Agent, 1433 Penn'a Ave. 
HAGERSTOW^N, MD., at Depot Shenandoah Valley Railroad. C. M. Futterek, 

Passenger Agent. 

IBJ XHH SOUTH AIX» SOUXHWESX AX 

NEW ORLEANS, Ticket Offices and Depots L. & N. R. R , and Great Jackson 

Route and Queen anl Crescent Route, and Mississippi Valley Route. J. C. 

Andrews, Gen'l Southern Agent. Jas. H. Hill, Ticket Agent, 22 Carondelet St. 
MOBILE, Ticket Office, opposite Battle House, and Depot Ticket Offices L. & N. R. 

R., and M. & O. R. W. H. Doll, T. P. A., M. & B. Ry. 
SELMA, C. T. Airey, Ticket Agent; L. A. Bell, A, G. P. A. 
MONTGOMERY, Depot Ticket Office Western R. R. (of Ala.), and L. & N. R. R. 

Jno. M.'Wyly, General Agent; W. F. Allday, Traveling Passenger Agent. 
JACKSONVILLE, Ticket Office S., F. & W. R'y. Frank M. Jolly, District 

Passenger Agent, 75 Bay Street. 
ST. AUGUSTINE, F. J. Ballard, Ticket Agent, S., F. & W. R'y. 
MACON, A. B. Quinker, Ticket Agent, Depot E. T., V. & G. R'y, and Ticket Office, 

100 Second Street, 
MERIDIAN, MISS,, J. D.Waddell, Agent. ' 

ROME, GA.. C. P. Kennedy, City Passenger and Ticket Agent, Armstrong Hotel. 
ATLANTA, Ticket Office E. T.,V. & G. R y Depot, and Ticket Office, No. i Kimball 

House. T, C. Sturgis, Traveling Passenger Agent; C. N. Kight, Assistant Gen'l 

Passenger Agent. 
RICHMOND, VA., Ticket Offices at A. W. Garber's, iooo Main St., and Depot of 

C. & O. R'y. 
NORFOLK, Ticket Offices, W. T. Walke, Atlantic Hotel and Depot N. & W. R. R. 

F. H. Masi. Masfs Drug Store- H. W. James, Agent, Norfolk. 
DALLAS, TEX., Depot Ticket Office Texas Pacific R. R. and H. & T. C. R y. 
LITTLE ROCK, ARK,, Depot Ticket Office M. & L. R. R. R. C. A. Baird, Gen'l 

Western Passenger Agent. 
MEMPHIS, TENN., Depot Ticket Office M. & C. R. R. Barney Hughes, Ticket 

Agent, 278 Main St.; J. C. Beam, City Passenger Agent; C. A. DeSaussure, 

Assistant General Passenger Agent. 
NASHVILLE, TENN., Depot Ticket Office N, C, & St. L, R"y, and Robertson's 

Ticket Office, Maxwell House, 
CHATTANOOGA, Ticket Office Union Passenger Depot. J. M. Sutton, District 

Passenger Agent. 
CLEVELAND, TENN., J. M. Crow, Passenger Agent. 
ATHENS, TENN,, D. M. Owen, Passenger Agent, 
SWEETWATER, TENN., A. W. Lillard, Passenger Agent. 
KNOXVILLE, Ticket Office E. T., V. & G. R'y. J. L, Milam, Passenger Agent; 

W. A. Day, District Passenger Agent, Asheville, N. C. 
LYNCHBURG, Warren L. Rohr, Passenger and Ticket Agent. Ticket Office 

Depot Norfolk & Western R. R. J. L. Peck, Commercial Agent. 
ROANOKE, J. B. Pack, Ticket Agent; Allen Hull, Traveling Passenger Agent. 

And at all Principal Railroad Ticket Offices Throughout the Country. 



76 



TABLE OF STATIONS, DISTANCES, Etc. 



Station 
No. 




6 
9 

14 

17 

23 

28 

83 

36 

40 

46 

49 

53 

56 

59 

62 

66 

73 

76 

80 

85 

89 

96 

103 

104 

107 

113 

127 

129 

132 

137 

143 

148 

150 

153 

160 

163 

168 

175 

180 

186 

189 

191 

199 

209 

214 

219 

825 

2-28 

232 

236 

239 



STATIONS. 



Hagerstown 

St. James 

Grimes ... 

Antietam 

Sheperdjtown 

Shenandoah Junction 

Charlestown 

Rlpon . . 

Gay lord 

Berry ville 

Boyce 

White Post... 

Ashby 

Cedarville 

Biverton , 

Front Royal , 

Manor 

Bentonville 

Overall 

Riley ville 

Kimball 

LUBAY 

Marksville 

Ingham 

GroveHill 

Milnes 

Elkton 

Fort Republic 

GROTTOES 

Harriston 

Crimora 

Waynesboro Junction 

Lyndhurst 

Lipscomb 

Stuart's Draft 

Greenville 

Lofton 

Vesuvius 

Midvalo 

Riverside 

Loch Laird 

Thompson 

Buffalo Forge . . 
NATURAL BRIDGE ... 

Arcadia 

Buchanan 

Lithia 

Houston 

Troutville 

Cloverdale 

Tinker Creek 

Roanoke 



County and State. 



Washington, Md. 

Jefferson, W. Va, 

fa4 ii 

Clarke, Va. 

(1 u 

Warren, " 

ti n 

H (I 

i( n. 

t> i; 

(( i( 

Page, 



Rockingham, " 
Augusta, " 



Rockbridge, " 



Botetourt, 



Roanoke, 



Miles 

from 

Hagers- 

town. 



5.9 

0.0 

14.1 

16.9 

23.1 

28.4 

33.7 

36 2 

39.9 

46.2 

49.8 

53.2 

56.4 

59.2 

62.1 

66.4 

72.9 

75.6 

79.8 

85.1 

88.8 

95 6 

101.8 

104.0 

106.7 

112.5 

127.2 

129.1 

132.1 

136.9 

143.8 

148.0 

150.0 

153.0 

159.4 

162.7 

167.6 

174.9 

179 7 

185 9 

188 7 

191.0 

198 6 

208 9 

2!4.2 

219.2 

224.6 

227.9 

232.2 

236.5 

239.8 



ONLvY AIvIv-RAIIv ROUTE 

— TO THE — 

Wonderful Caverns of Luray, 

THE FAMOUS 

Naiural Bridge of Virginia, 

AND THE 

Grottoes of the Shenandoah. 




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